The cathedral church of Winchester; a description of its fabric and a brief history of the Episcopal see

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LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

PACB

The Cathedral from the North- West ... Frontispiece

The Deanery .......... 2

Old View of the North Side of the Cathedral . . . . 11

Monument to Bishop Ethelmar 15

The Cathedral from the Deanery Gardens . . . . . 19

The West Front 21

North- West Bay — Exterior 25

East End — Exterior 29

Nave, showing Screen before Restoration 31

Transformation of the Nave 35

The Nave, looking East 37

The Nave, looking West 39

The Grill- work from S. Swithun's Shrine 41

The Norman Font 45

William of Wykeham's Chantry 47

The Choir, looking East 51

The Choir Stalls 53

The Altar and Reredos 57

The North Transept 59

View in North Transept . . 63

Door to Henry de Blois' Treasury 66

Bishop Wilbeiforce's Monument 67

South Aisle, from Transept 69

Back of Feretory, with Bishop Gardiner's Chantry • • • 73

Bishop Fox's Chantry and Details 75» 76

South Aisle of Retro-choir 77

Cardinal Beaufort's Chantry 81

The Lady Chapel 85

Details of Lady Chapel . . 87

Bishop Langton's Chapel and Details 89, 90

Queen Mary's Chair 91

Mortuary Chest in Choir 95

Carving on Choir Stalls in

Details of Font 117

Winchester College: "School" 119

Winchester College : The Outer Gateway 120

Winchester College : Chantry Chapel 121

Winchester College : Inscription and The Trusty Servant . 122, 123

St Cross from the South 124

St Cross from the Quadrangle . . . . . . .125

St Cross: East End from Nave 126

County Hall with Round Table 127

The City Cross 129

Tombstone in Churchyard 131

Tlic West Gate 132

Plans of thr Cathedral and Crypts .... 134, 135

4

I

y

^0

)

\

BELL'S CATHEDRAL SERIES:
EDITED BY GLEESON WHITE
AND EDWARD F. STRANGE

WINCHESTER

* *

THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF

WINCHESTER

A DESCRIPTION OF ITS FABRIC
AND A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE

EPISCOPAL SEE

PHILIP Wf SERGEANT

LATE SCHOLAR OF TRINITY COLLEGE, OXFORD

WITH FIFTY

ILLUSTRATIONS

LONDON GEORGE BELL & SONS 1903

i

■«

N

GENERAL PREFACE

This series of monographs has been planned to supply visitors
to the great English Cathedrals with accurate and well illus-
trated guide-books at a popular price. The aim of each writer
has been to produce a work compiled with sufficient knowledge
and scholarship to be of value to the student of Archaeology
and History, and yet not too technical in language for the use
of an ordinary visitor or tourist.

To specify all the authorities which have been made use
of in each case would be difficult and tedious in this place.
But amongst the general sources of information which have
been almost invariably found useful are; — (i) the great
county histories, the value of which, especially in questions
of genealogy and local records, is generally recognised; (2)
the numerous papers by experts which appear from time to
time in the Transactions of the Antiquarian and Archaeological
Societies; (3) the important documents made accessible in
the series issued by the Master of the Rolls; (4) the well-
known works of Britton and Willis on the English Cathedrals ;
and (5) the very excellent series of Handbooks to the
Cathedrals originated by the late Mr John Murray ; to which
the reader may in most cases be referred for fuller detail,
especially in reference to the histories of the respective sees.

GiJiESON White,
E. F. Strange,

Editors of the Series,

153554

PREFACE TO FIRST EDITION

It would be useless to attempt to record all the sources of
information to which it has been necessary to have recourse
in preparing this short account of Winchester Cathedral and
its history; but I should like to acknowledge the main
portion of the debt. " The Proceedings of the Archaeological
Institute of Great Britain in 1845 " must, of course, take
the first place, for to Willis's paper every one must go who
wishes to know the cathedral well. Britton's "Cathedrals,"
Browne Willis's " Survey of the Cathedrals," and Woodward's
" History of Hampshire," with the more recent Diocesan His-
tory of Winchester by Canon Benham, and the "Winchester
Cathedral Records" of various dates, have been of great
service. An article in the Builder of October i, 1892, and
one on St Cross in Architecture for November 1896, must
also be mentioned. Above all, I am glad to be able to
express my gratitude to one of the editors of this series,
Mr Gleeson White, without whose assistance this account
would never have been commenced. The engraving of the
iron grill -work is reproduced from Mr Starkie Gardiner's
"Iron -work," Vol. I., by permission of the Science and
Art Department, South Kensington.

Philip Walsingham Sergeant.

CONTENTS

PAGB

Chapter I. — History of the Cathedral 3

Chapter II. — ^The Cathedral Building and Close ... 16

The Exterior 19

The West Front 20

The North and South Sides 26

The Central Tower 27

The Transepts 27

The East End ......... 28

Chapter III. — The Interior 33

The Nave 34

The Minstrels' Gallery 40

The Grill-work 43

The Norman Font . 44

Wykeham's Chantry 46

Edingdon's Chantry 50

The Choir . . . . . . . . . .50

The Tomb of " William Rufus " 52

The Reredos 55

The Transepts . . . 61

North Transept 65

South Transept 65

The Library 71

The Feretory 72

The Holy Hole 72

Gardiner's and Fox's Chantries 74

The Mortuary Chests 76

The Retro-choir and its Chantries . . . . . 79

The Lady Chapel 84

The Guardian Angels and Langton Chapels .... 90

The Crypts 93

The Stained Glass 94

Chapter IV. — History of the See 96

Chapter V. — The Bishops of Winchester ..... loi

Chapter VI, — Other Institutions connected with the Cathedral. 118

-r w . .

HISTORY OF THE CATHEDRAL 13

been far worse. The Puritans maltreated it on other grounds
than those of taste, it is to be feared. It was during Bishop
Gardiner's tenure of the see that Philip of Spain and Mary
were married at Winchester. Contemporary records by a
Spaniard in Philip's suite, and by an English observer of the
same date, recently revealed to us by Mr Martin A. S. Hume,
set forth the story of the marriage most vividly. The king
arrived from Southampton in a storm of rain, and "donned
a black velvet surcoat covered with gold bugles and a suit of
white velvet trimmed in the same way, and thus he entered,
passing the usual red-clothed kneeling aldermen with gold keys
on cushions, and then to the grand cathedral, which impressed
the Spaniards with wonder, and above all to find that * Mass
was as solemnly sung there as at Toledo.' A little crowd of
mitred bishops stood at the great west door, crosses raised
and censers swinging, and in solemn procession to the high
altar, under a velvet canopy, they led the man whom they
looked upon as God's chosen instrument to permanently re-
store their faith in England." Two days after the wedding took
place. Great attention is paid to the clothes by both English
and Spanish narrators, and the ceremony and dresses were very
magnificent; the Queen's ladies "looked more like celestial
angels than mortal creatures." The Queen, we are told, blazed
with jewels to such an extent that the eye was blinded as it
looked upon her ; her dress was of black velvet flashing with
gems, and a splendid mantle of cloth of gold fell from her
shoulders ; but through the Mass that followed the marriage
service she never took her eyes off the crucifix upon which
they were devoutly fixed. The marriage took place in the
July of 1554, and the chair used by Queen Mary is now
standing in Bishop Langton's chapel.

Some stormy years at the end of Gardiner's interrupted
episcopacy and during the rule of his immediate successors did
not much affect Winchester externally ; but under Robert Home
the whole diocese suffered terribly through the " Puritanical "
views of its bishop. The Norman chapter-house was pulled
down, part of the lead on the cathedral roof was stripped off,
and stained glass, architectural decorations, etc., throughout the
neighbourhood were ruthlessly destroyed. However, after a
short period of comparative peace, far worse had yet to come.
Under James I. and during the early part of the reign of

CHAPTER 11

THE CATHEDRAL BUILDING AND CLOSE

Before any detailed consideration of the architecture of the
cathedral, it is well to be clear as to the various dates
of the chief parts. But it must here be remembered that
practically in every instance the now existing portions re-
placed still earlier, structures on the same site. Mention has
been made already of the changes from the original building to
the one commenced in the eleventh century. In 1079 Bishop
Walkelin laid the foundations of a great Norman church, of
which the transepts, the outer face of the south nave wall,
the core of the nave itself, the crypts, and a portion of the
base of the west front are still existing. Walkelin's work was
completed in fourteen years, just before the end of 1093.
The tower fell in 1107, but was rebuilt soon afterwards
in the form which we now see it. Bishop de Lucy's work,
which came next in date (i 189-1204), includes the Chapel
of the Guardian Angels, flanking the Lady Chapel, at the
north-east end of the cathedral, and the corresponding
chapel on the south-east, which afterwards became the
chantry of Bishop Langton. The piers of the presbytery
probably date from about 1320. The west front was rebuilt
in Edingdon's time (1345- 1366), and a small part of the
reconstruction of the nave, the first two bays of the north
aisle, and a bay of the south are generally attributed to him.
The great re-modelling of the nave, the outer walls of the
presbytery, and the continuation of the Lady Chapel range in
date of completion from the end of the fourteenth to the
sixteenth century. So much, however, of each period has
been altered, and often modified almost beyond recognition
by later additions, that it is impossible to make more than a
rough guess at the age of the various portions. The work of
Wykeham and his successors is so important that it must
be left until we reach it in its proper place.

16

THE CATHEDRAL BUILDING AND CLOSE 17

The ground covered by the actual building is one and a half
acres in extent. The close is fine and extensive, and is sur-
rounded by a high and stout wall which marks the limits of
the old Benedictine monastery. The houses within the close
are of widely different dates, from the Early English period to
recent years. They comprise the official residences of the
dean and the canons, together with some private houses. The
changes made from time to time in the distribution of the
ground have involved the disappearance of the old priory
buildings, and it is not possible to trace with certainty their
original form. The laying out of the close has concealed the
ground plan of the cloisters which once adjoined the cathedral.
What is now called by the name is the passage between the
south transept and the former chapter-house, which was pulled
down in 1570 by the destructive Bishop Home, in order, it is
said, that the lead in the roof might be sold. Five extremely
fine Early Norman arches which were once part of the chapter-
house still remain, and may be seen in a line with the end of
the slype, beyond the south transept. Some traces of small
arches on what is now the extreme outer wall of the transept
mark where arcading once ran along the inner wall of the
chapter-house. No vestige of the roof remains. The " slype "
is a passage which was cut through the southern buttress by
Bishop Curie, to put a stop to the constant use of the nave
and south aisle as a thoroughfare by the townspeople. The
anagrams on the walls commemorate the purpose of the
passage ; the first, on the western arch, reading : —

ILL\

>AC

PREC\

Sator

H/

f

AMBULA

VI/

/

and that over the eastern arch :-

/ACR\ S\ ILL\ CH\

;/ >A \lT >A >(

\erv/ SX IST/ F/

* Iliac precaior, hac viator ambula (That way thou that prayest, this
way thou that passest by, walk) ; Sacra sit ilia choro, serva sit ista foro
(That way is sacred to the Choir, that for use to the market-place).

B

1 8 WINCHESTER CATHEDRAL

In the angle of an old extension of the chapter-house south
wall are traces of the dormitory and infirmary which formerly
stood there. The Early English doorway with Purbeck marble
shafts seems to have led to this dormitory. To the south of
this is the deanery or prior's hall, the acute external arches,
which date from the reign of Henry III., forming a vestibule
with a southern aspect, while above are some narrow lancet-
windows. Although the original portion of this hall dates from
the fifteenth century, it was considerably altered in the seven-
teenth, during the second Charles's reign. This king himself
sometimes stayed at the deanery, where Philip of Spain lodged
for one night before his marriage. Over a wooden building,
which now serves as the dean's stables, is an ornamental
timber roof of late thirteenth -century work, which was once
part of the old pilgrims' or strangers' hall originally standing
in this part of the close for the benefit of pilgrims to the shrine
of S. Swithun.

In the south wall of the cathedral, close to the west front, there
is a doorway which is reported to have led to the chapel and
charnel-house mentioned by Leland. " S. Swithin, now called
Trinity," he says, " stands on the south side of the town, and
there is a chapelle with a carnarie at the west end of it." S.
Swithin is, of course, the cathedral itself. Leland's other
carnary, which must not be confused with this, was attached
to a chapel "on the north side of S. Mary Abbey church
at Winchester, in an area thereby, on which men entre by
a certen steppes. One Inkepenne, a gentilman that berith
in his shield a scheker sylver and sables, was founder of it.
There be three tumbes of marble of prestes custodes of the
chapelle."

Among the old houses which have vanished from the close
is one in which Charles 11. in vain requested Bishop Ken to
allow Nell Gwynne to lodge ; and one which was erected for
her and not pulled down until this century. The cathedral
precincts, however, still contain on the southern side several
buildings well worthy of notice. A picturesque house yet
standing is that which was known by the name of Cheyney
Court. It now serves as a porter's lodge, and stands by the
wooden-doored gateway which opens into Kingsgate Street.
The doors are supposed to have come down to us from
the thirteenth century. Previously this lodge was the court-

THE CATHEDRAL BUILDING AND CLOSE 19

house of the Soke of Winchester, and the centre of the
episcopal jurisdiction here. The old timbered front, with
its barge-boards, was in 1886 concealed behind a rough-cast

t coating, but in that year this was fortunately stripped
away, and the present charming aspect revealed to the eye.

The Exterior.^It would be difficult to deny that the
exterior of Winchester Cathedral is disappointing, and few
are hkely to echo the opinion of an over-zealous admirer
of the building who said that the longer one looks at it
the more one feels the low central tower to be the only
kind that would suit the huge proportions of the building.
On the contrary, it may be said that it is impossible to
look at Winchester without a feeling of regret that the
superb mass of the great fabric, the largest mediteval church
in England since the destruction of old S. Paul's, is not
crowned by a loftier central tower. There is a legend to
the effect that there were seven towers in the original design
— the central one, two at the west end. and one at each

20 WINCHESTER CATHEDRAL

angle of the transepts ; and this seems to be supported by the
solid character of some of the piers in the transepts. Yet,
despite the rather ungraceful outline of the whole building,
when Its mere size is realised, it gradually asserts its importance
and incontrovertibly proves its right to be considered one of
the very finest structures in England.

It will not be out of place to quote a short criticism which
sums up the external qualities of the cathedral in a concise
way : — " With the exception of portions of the late work in the
presbytery, the exterior of Winchester is severe in treatment,
and plain wall-space plays an important part in the design.
Plain parapets and simply treated pinnacles characterise the
work of the nave. The Norman transepts are externally but
little altered, except by the insertion of Decorated windows to
give more light to the altars in their eastern aisles ; and De
Lucy's work eastwards is, compared with some work of its date,
simple in the extreme. Rather more elaboration was bestowed
on the design of the new eastern bay of the Lady Chapel by
Prior Silkstede and Bishop Courtenay ; but, taken as a whole,
Winchester has one of the simplest exteriors for its size and
importance in the country " (" Winchester Cathedral " in The
Builder iox October 1892).

The ground-plan of Winchester Cathedral is in the form of a
plain Latin cross, hardly broken in its outline save by the
Perpendicular prolongation of the Lady Chapel at the east
end. But, simple as is the plan, " the great length of the
church " (to use the words of Fergusson) " is pleasingly broken
... by the bold projection of its transepts, which here extend,
as usual in England, three bays beyond the aisles, their section
being the same width as that of the nave." The width of the
nave with the aisles is %% feet, while the transepts measure,
from east to west, 81 feet. The total length has already been
given as 556, and the width from north to south across the
transepts is 230 feet. The altitude of the walls is 75 feet,
which is a foot less than at Peterborough, though three more
than at Ely.

The West Front, the work of Bishop Edingdon, has been
roughly handled by its critics, though Britton calls it a fine
specimen of Perpendicular architecture. The original Norman
work demolished by Edingdon was, as excavations have proved,
forty feet in advance of the present fagade. To judge by

^'^

THE CATHEDRAL BUILDING AND CLOSE 23

accounts of the destroyed portions, the west front in its earlier
state must have been far more imposing than it is at present,
for not only is it now commonplace in mass, but even the
detail has no particular charm to atone for the change. The
whole of this work appears so thoroughly Perpendicular in
character that it has been questioned whether at such an early
date as that to which it is assigned the style can have been
so far developed. Woodward, indeed, though attributing to
Edingdon the walls and the principal part of the west end, declares
the tracery, the fronts of the porches, and much of the panel-
ling to be later ; but a comparison of Winchester with another
church undoubtedly built by this bishop, at his native town of
Edingdon, in Wiltshire, supports the tradition which credits him
with its erection. Besides this evidence, we have additional
proof in the fact that he left by his will certain property to be
devoted to the completion of the nave. Late though his work
may appear at first sight, yet when it is closely examined and
compared with Wykeham's work the difference is very apparent.

The whole western facade with its three bays is wanting in
greatness, and its effect may be said to be that of a large
parish church rather than a cathedral. Not only do we miss
the western towers which are so often the most striking feature
of an English west front, but the spreen which masks the
lower storey lacks the richness which distinguishes a somewhat
similar feature at Exeter. The curiously poor appearance,
notwithstanding its huge size, of the great west window is
perhaps chiefly responsible for the want of dignity in the
whole ; nor is there, to redeem this, any delicate fancy in the
tracery. The " merest stone grating " Willis terms the window,
and though from so warm a panegyrist of the church this seems
a severe criticism, no one can traverse his opinion.

By way of further proof that the west front was Edingdon's
work, Willis points out that, while in Wykeham's panels the
masonry itself is carefully finished, and the same stones used
for the ground of the panel and its mouldings, in Edingdon's
work the monials and tracery alone exhibit good masonry, the
panels being filled with rough ashlar. By other tests, too
technical to quote here, the same critic makes it clear that
the west front, with two compartments of the nave on the north
and one to the south, must be attributed to Edingdon, though
he probably did not finish the gable and turrets, which seem to

24 WINCHESTER CATHEDRAL

be the work of Wykeham. The present state shows a gable
rising in the centre, flanked by octagonal pinnacle turrets. On
the apex of this gable is a canopied finial containing a niche
wherein now stands a figure of William of Wykeham, the
original statue, which was supposed to represent S. Swithun,
having been removed to the feretory when the west front was
restored in i860 at a cost of ;^3ooo. The triangle of the
gable is filled with tracery, the lower part of the central panels
in which serve as a smaller square-headed six-light window
above the parapet which crosses at the head of the great nine-
light window. Buttresses assist in supporting the two towers,
and lesser ones project to hide the sides of the porch, which,
pierced by three doorways and crowned by a parapet, extends
along the whole lower storey, across the nave and both aisles.
Above the screen the pitched roofs of aisles may be seen. The
bays containing the side windows, of four lights each, accord
in style with the large central one, having also wall tracery in
panels over the comparatively small surface of unpierced wall.
The screen itself has three deeply-recessed portals with pointed
arches, and a large canopied empty niche on each side of the
main entrance.

The central doorway is divided by a clustered shaft, where-
from spring two cinquefoil arches. The recessed portal has a
groined roof, with an arcade of cusped arches on the main west
wall, broken by the doorways which give admission to the nave.
A pierced balcony of simple design crowns the whole of the
screen and forms a gallery which is said to have been used for
bestowing episcopal benedictions to the people outside the
cathedral on festival days.

The excavations which brought to light the old foundations
of the original west front showed "a wall of 128 feet from
north to south, and 12 feet thick, with returns at each
end of the same thickness 60 feet in length. At their
eastern ends the walls again turn in at right angles and meet
the present side aisles at 17 feet from each corner. Within
the parallelogram thus partially traced two other walls run from
east to west at a distance of 36 feet from each other."
In a garden adjoining the west end of the cathedral at the
time when these observations were made, part of the south-west
angle of the walls still remained. Indications of the western
towers were apparent; and Willis suggests that they were

EDINGDON'S WINDOWS IN I

26 WINCHESTER CATHEDRAL

probably either unfinished, or in a threatening condition, so
that Edingdon demolished them; even as at Gloucester the
western towers of the cathedral were removed, and the facade
was replaced by a perpendicular west front at the beginning of
the fifteenth century.

The original west front may very probably have been similar
to that of Lincoln Cathedral, " unornamental," says a writer in
Architecture^ " save for some interlacing arches and dwarf blind
arcades, and with no windows to reflect the setting sun, or to
light the cavernous interior."

The two westernmost bays of the North side are due to
Edingdon, and we get here well contrasted the work of Eding-
don and of Wykeham. In Willis's plan the difference can
be clearly seen. The two windows to the right are heavier,
lower, and broader, and display much deeper exterior mould-
ings, with "a most cavernous and gloomy appearance," while
the window on the left hand is much narrower and lighter.
The left-hand buttress is like the others on the north side of the
church, whereas the other three are different from it and from
one another, that on the extreme right, together with its
pinnacle, being apparently just as Edingdon left it. The
pinnacles and upper set-off- of the two centre buttresses in the
figure were added by Wykeham to Edingdon's underwork.
The mouldings of Wykeham' s windows are more elaborate than
those of Edingdon's, where the tracery is similar to that of the
west window. Of the bays on the north side the nine next to
Edingdon's two, together with the three beyond the northern
transept, are Wykeham 's work, as are the three bays beyond the
transept on the southern side and the extension of the Lady
Chapel. Edingdon claims, beside what has been already
mentioned, one bay on the south, next the west front. De
Lucy's work consists of the three easterly bays on either side,
and part of the Lady Chapel exterior. The rest of the bays are
Norman, and the prevailing note is simplicity, not to say
rudeness. The South side of the nave is almost devoid of
decoration, the bays being merely divided by flat buttresses
which do not reach below the bottoms of the aisle windows.
The eleven windows in the clerestory above are all alike,
divided only by flat buttresses. Aisle and clerestory both show
a plain parapet and corbels. The bold buttresses on the north
side, with their panelled and crocketted pinnacles, save it from

THE CATHEDRAL BUILDING AND CLOSE 27

the monotony of the south side, which, however, was once
greatly concealed by cloisters and convent buildings, and is
even now far more enclosed than the northern side.

The low Central Tower, the coping of which is only
35 feet above the ridge of the transept roof, is Norman,
though, as explained before, of later date than the transepts. It
is of a simple square form, 150 feet high by 50 wide, and is
divided by a string course into two storeys, the lower of which is
plain with small round-headed windows ; the larger upper storey
has on each side three narrow round-headed windows, which
forfti a kind of arcade round the upper part of the tower,
surmounted by a zig-zag string course. At the angles are
engaged shafts. The massive manner in which the tower was
rebuilt in the eleventh century can be better appreciated
from within, when we come to the piers which support it.
The building has been said to prove that the Normans of the
period were " still bad masons and imperfectly acquainted with
the principles of construction," the masses of masonry employed
showing an enormous waste of both labour and materials. But
the architects at any rate gained their end, since the tower has
stood to the present day. The strength of the original Norman
work, indeed, is so great that for all the 250 feet of nave no
flying-buttresses were required to support the later vaulting.

The gables of the Transepts are not so high as those of
the nave, but the clerestory parapets are on the same level.
The side aisles are much lower than those in the nave or the
presbytery. The parapets are plain, over a series of small
arches supported by corbels ; except that in the eastern aisle of
the south transept the parapet rests on plain corbels, and above
the western clerestory of the other transept is a cornice with
Perpendicular bosses. In this clerestory, again, the buttresses
are Perpendicular, whereas otherwise throughout the transepts
they are flat Norman. Over the eastern aisle of the north there
is no cornice or corbel ; " the parapet," says Woodward, " with
no more than a water-table under it, is carried across the gable
of the north transept, so as to form an alura above the buttress,
in front of the circular window there." The Perpendicular
rose-window in the northern gable cannot now be seen from
the interior, being hidden by the transept ceiling, but in the
illustration from Brittoriy on page 59, it is visible. The corre-
sponding gable on the south shows panelling with interlacing

28 WINCHESTER CATHEDRAL

Norman arches, but there are only two narrow lights. Many
symptoms show that square towers were to have been erected
flanking the transept gables. There is an unfinished turret at
the north-east comer of the north transept, while the springing
of an arcade and the generally incomplete appearance prove
that a side tower was intended. The other three extreme
angles of the transepts also bear out this view. The width
from east to west of the transepts is enormous as compared
with the height of the central tower above. It rather looks
from the presence (barely perceptible from outside) of the
westernmost windows of the presbytery aisles as if those who
carried on Wykeham's work had meant to reduce this great
width, and give more importance to the presbytery and retro-
choir externally. It is certain, at any rate, that the Norman
transepts narrowly escaped a complete transformation. That
on the north side of the cathedral shows very considerable
alterations, in the majority of its windows, from the old
Norman pattern. A built-up doorway may be noticed under
the first window from the west of this transept.

The exterior of the Presbytery has only three compart-
ments on each side, but in each there are four lights in aisle and
clerestory alike. The windows are of the Wykeham pattern,
though probably a little later in date than his work. The
buttresses, which rise above the aisle roof, culminate in square
panelled pinnacles, surmounted by crocketted ogee canopies.
From these buttresses spring graceful flying-buttresses, with
pierced spandrels running to the clerestory walls. On the
northern side the plain parapet has over it a pierced battlement

The Hast Hnd, as it now stands, is some no feet beyond
the original Norman termination, and presents a square face,
projecting with a flat parapet beyond the high gable over the
actual east window. The Norman apse was demolished about
1320 in all probability, and the present polygonal end sub-
stituted for it. It seems that originally the aisles of the
Norman presbytery continued round this apse, which was
flanked by two small towers. The eastern chapel may have
been dedicated to the Holy Trinity as at Canterbury, and
probably extended as far as the western arch of the present
Lady Chapel. The central gable of the old termination,
rather acute in form, is richly decorated with panels and
crocketting, and is crowned by a tabernacle wherein Bishop

THE CATHEDRAL BUILDING AND CLOSE 29

Fox is represented leaning on the pelican. "Three of the
panels in the centre are pierced and glazed, forming a small
square-headed window ; and under it is a door opening upon
an alura, behind a crenelated, panelled, and pierced parapet,
over a cornice with bosses, at the base of the gable, and just
above the east window" (Woodward). The Perpendicular
east window has seven lights, and resembles, in the form of
its bead, Wykeham's windows. A portrait bust of Fox has

been discovered on the north corbel of the hood-mould of.
this window, and the flying-buttresses (which, as Willis pointed
out, the jointing of the masonry proves to be later insertions
into the clerestory walls) have the pelican carved on them.
The whole gable is flanked by richly canopied octagonal tur-
rets, on which the flying-buttresses abut. The lower part of the
east window cannot be seen from below, being lost behind
the roof of the chantry aisles.

The whole of the eastern arm of the cathedral is curiously.

30 WINCHESTER CATHEDRAL

mixed in style, furnishing examples of Early English, Decorated,
and Perpendicular architecture. Beyond the main east gable
just described projects a low Early English structure of three
nearly equally high aisles, of which the central or Lady Chapel
has received a further Perpendicular addition. There has been
apparently a slight subsidence of the Early English walls, which
has caused the irregular look of the arches in the interior of
the southern retro-choir aisle (see page 69). Above the plain
string-course of the retro-choir there is in each compartment,
under a level parapet, an arcade of narrow pointed arches, four
in number, the central couple of each set being pierced and
glazed, so as to form pairs of lancet windows. The Langton
and Guardian Angels' chapels, which project not quite half as
far as the Lady Chapel from the old eastern limit of the church,
show a triple series of arcades, diminishing in size as they
mount. The central arcade is much cut into on the eastern
face by the large three-light windows of the lateral chapels.
There is no parapet above the arcades. At the angles between
these chapels and the retro-choir aisles are staircases enclosed
in small octagonal turrets rising slightly above the adjoining
parts with merely a plain parapet at the top.

The Lady Chapel has at the end and at each side a fine
seven-light Perpendicular window, the heads of the lights below
the transom being cinquefoiled, while above each window is a
cornice supported by small arches resting on corbels ; over all
is a pierced battlement, which is also crenelated at the actual
east end. Below the east window of the Lady Chapel, be-
tween the two great buttresses with mutilated canopies on the
two lower of their three divisions, there is some blank panelling,
consisting of four shallow-arched recesses with a pilaster down
the centre, each arch uniting two minor ones with cinquefoil
cusps at the head and crowned by a quatrefoil with a rosette
in the middle. There were originally four heads at the ends
of the corbels under these quatrefoils, but the southernmost is
broken away. A similar arcade runs along the southern wall
of the Lady Chapel, but there is none on the north side. The
two main corbel-tables at the east end show the arms of England
and France and the bishop's device of three "torteaux." Under
these, at a short distance from the ground, are two smaller win-
dows, which give light to the Lady Chapel crypt. The panelling
dates from about 1490, and is due to Bishop Peter Courtenay.

1. w ^ >"

V - ^ -

^ T '^ *-

^y^tWf

CHAPTER III

THE INTERIOR

The very first glimpse of the nave, as one enters by the west
door, reveals the superb proportions of the interior. In spite
of all statistics of its size, the outward appearance of the build-
ing hardly impresses the spectator with the fact that Winchester
is the largest cathedral in Northern Europe, and it is not until one
is within the walls that the great length of the cathedral begins
to become real and its majesty is properly appreciated. The
total span, from end to end, of 556 feet, compared with the
537 feet of Ely, the 525 of York, the 524 of Lincoln, and the
5 1 6 of Canterbury, would not alone produce the effect of almost
infinite vastness, and is certainly not realised either in a distant
prospect from the hills or in a nearer view from the cathedral
precincts. But when once the nave is entered, owing partly to
the open and comparatively low choir-screen, the magnificent
vault of nearly 400 feet may easily be understood to have few
rivals in the world. Certainly neither of the two buildings
in England which are practically equal in size to Winchester
Cathedral give the peculiarly overwhelming sense of length
produced here. The old epithet of " Royal " may be said
to apply as fitly to the cathedral as to the town, and it
certainly is a worthy shelter for the bones of half- forgotten
dynasties, and as fine a monument of an earlier England as
Westminster is of later periods in the development of the
country.

Of course, as in all English cathedrals, a lack of colour and
a sense of coldness and emptiness modifies any unqualified
admiration which one might at first feel. But Winchester could
well afford to admit far more than the most captious critic
could utter against it, and yet claim to be the most stately nave
that England can show. Despite the late recasting, the pro-

C 33

34 WINCHESTER CATHEDRAL

portions are Norman, and the very core of the pillars is still
the original Norman stonework. Notwithstanding the changes
wrought by Edingdon and Wykeham, all the more petty detail
of the Decorated period is lavished on a colossal structure
planned with the simple magnificence of those that "builded
better than they knew."

Perhaps it is not quite fair to the later architects to attribute
all the excellence of the work to the earlier builders, for the
graceful columns of the nave's eleven bays which rise unbroken
to where the roof-groining springs from their capitals are made
by Wykeham to fulfil a new duty which entirely alters their
whole aspect. The general effect has been said to be as if
a Norman architect had expressed himself in the more refined
idiom of the early fifteenth century. Yet the work of Edingdon
and Wykeham was ruthless in its way. The original Norman
nave of Walkelin consisted of the normal three storeys, of equal
height in this case — the main arches, triforium, and clerestory.
At the present day the main arches are fully half as high again
as they were in the Norman cathedral, while the base of the
clerestory has been brought down to meet them, so that the
triforium appears to have vanished or rather to exist merely as
a balcony over each arch. As a matter of fact, however, it was
the old clerestory which was entirely removed and replaced by
the present upper storey. On p. 35 we see on the one hand
typical Norman work, of the character still existing at Romsey
Abbey and Christchurch Priory— to mention only the two
large churches nearest to Winchester. During the conversion
of the nave the bases and capitals of the grouped shafts of
the main arches were removed, together with all the masonry
above them. This is not mere conjecture, for the Norman
shafts and capitals which still remain on the north side of
the nave, in the second bay from the crossing, where they
were covered by the ancient rood-sqreen, show that the pier-
arches of the nave sprang from the same height as those
of the transepts ; the Norman main arch of the triforium still
exists in every compartment over the vault of the side aisles to
prove that the triforium of the nave was practically on the same
level as that of the transepts, and the tops of the Norman shafts
yet remaining above the nave-vaulting are additional evidence
that the nave was to all intents and purposes uniform with the
transepts in its general arrangement. In the south aisle,

ELEVATION OF TWO BAVS OF THE NAVE, SHOWING ITS
TRANSFORMATION.
[From WiLLU's"ArchItectim1 Hislory of Winche^er CUhedral," i8.

36 WINCHESTER CATHEDRAL

nftoreover, there is to be seen the lower extremity of a Norman
shaft, once covered by some votive altar or shrine which was
removed during the destructive period of the Reformation.
" It may be readily noted," says the writer of a recent article
on Winchester Cathedral, "how the new ashlar was brought
down to the level of this vanished altar, and how Wykeham's
vaulting-shaft has been made to end in foliation where it
once rose in receipt of prayers and wax-candles vowed in
return for mercies vouchsafed." In the seven westerly piers
of the south aisle, the Norman stonework has merely received
new mouldings; while flat Norman buttresses can be seen
outside between the clerestory windows, also on the south
side.

On the division into two, in place of the usual three, storeys,
it may, perhaps, be of interest to quote some remarks of
Willis in the "Proceedings of the Archaeological Institute."
" The compartment of Wykeham's nave," he says, " is divided
into two parts vertically instead of three ; for although it has a
triforium gallery, yet this is so completely subordinated to the
clerestory window that it cannot be held as a separate division
of the composition, as in the Norman work where the triforium
compartment is of all importance and similar in decoration to
the other two, although not exactly like them. In Wykeham's
work, on the contrary, we find above the lofty pier-arch what at
first sight appears to be a clerestory window divided at mid-
height by a transom, and recessed under a deeply-pointed
archway. But it is above the transom only that the real window
is formed by glazing the spaces between the monials. Below the
transom these spaces are filled with panels, and two narrow
openings cut through the latter give access from the roof to a
kind of balcony which projects over the pier-arches. In each
compartment this balcony exists, but there is no free passage
from one to the other. This mode of uniting the triforium and
clerestory by the employment of a transom dividing the stone
panels of the former from the glazed lights of the latter is
common enough at the period of Wykeham's work and before
it, but the balcony is unusual."

It is needless to add any further explanation, since the
diagram fully explains both the present state of the nave
and the manner in which the transformation from the original
Norman design wa^ btought abojit ; but it may be worth while

38 WINCHESTER CATHEDRAL

to quote an architect's verdict on the general effect of Wyke-
ham's work in the nave. "If we cannot admire all the details,"
says this writer, " we can but bear tribute to the conception of
the whole. Its lofty arcades give no space for triforium, and
the proportion between the clerestory and the arcade is some-
what unsatisfactory. If we except the vaulted roof, and the
chantry of the great Wykeham himself, and his predecessor
Edingdon, this portion of the church may, with reason, be con-
sidered simple in its character, and bears distinct evidence of
having been grafted on earlier work. The Norman columns still
remain in one or two places towards the east end of the nave
arcade, but with the exception of these and of the Norman
masonry existing in the piers on the south, and perhaps portions
of the aisle walls, all is transformed to Perpendicular detail "
{The Butldery OoXohex i2>^2).

Altogether there are, between the western doors and the piers
supporting the tower, twelve arches on each side, one of each
series being included in the choir. Hooks and brackets may
be seen in the face of the piers at about three-quarters of their
height ; these were formerly used for the suspension of arras on
occasions of great festivity.

It has been practically established that the sculpture at least
of the nave and its vault was not finished for nearly half-a-
century after Wykeham's death. We find Cardinal Beaufort's
arms and bust, and his device, a white hart chained, as well
as Waynflete's lily, intermingled with the arms and bust of
Wykeham. Under the triforium gallery is a cornice, in each
compartment of which are to be found seven large sculptured
bosses, representing a cardinal's hat, a lily, roses, etc. Of the
compartments of the clerestory in the nave we have said that
they have the appearance of a very fine Perpendicular window.
All, however, except the upper part of the centre of these seem-
ing windows is really panel-work. The old Norman main arch
of the triforium may be seen behind this panelling, under the
present clerestory windows.

Until recently the mass above pressed very heavily on the
nave-vaulting, but during the last and preceding years (1896-7)
the strain has been relieved by the insertion of new supple-
mentary timbers above the original Hempage Forest beams,
which can still be seen by those who wish. The cost of this
work of repairing tb^ jK)of and -vault has been about ;^9ooo5

40 WINCHESTER CATHEDRAL

and so far has not at all exceeded the original estimate. In
August 1897 a large amount still remained to be subscribed.
As seen from below each division of the vault is " bounded by
two vaulting-shafts, which rise to the level of the clerestory
window-sill and send out from above the capital nine diverging
ribs to the ridge-rib, by which the whole vault is divided into a
series of bisected and interlacing lozenges, as the basis for all
the groining " (Woodward).

The general effect of the nave can be gathered from the
illustrations, which bring out well the appearance of height
which is bound, to impress the spectator standing near the
central western door. In the nave aisles also a fine view may
be obtained, the comparative narrowness counteracting the
lessened height. As one looks down the church towards the
west, it will be noticed that the western interior wall is practically
entirely filled by the great window, for not only does this stretch
across the whole width, but the mullions also are carried right
down to the floor-level, a double series of panels occupying the
space below the sill of the window. The glass in the window
proper is, for the most part, very old, and, as is pointed out
elsewhere (see p. 94), is arranged in patterns after the fashion
of a kaleidoscope. This arises from the fact that the fragments
of which it is composed are entirely disjointed, and probably
incapable of being pieced together.

The monuments and objects of interest in the nave are
numerous, but chief perhaps are, on the north side, the Min-
strels' Gallery, the old grill-work, and the font; and, on the
south side, the chantries of Bishops Wykeham and Edingdon.
But, first of all, though not on account of pre-eminent merit,
should be mentioned the bronze statues of James I. and
Charles I. to the north and south of the main west door,
against the interior wall. They were executed by Le Sueur,
the artist who executed the fine equestrian figure of Charles I.
at Charing Cross. A note on the sculptor's payment for
these bronzes may be seen in the "Record of Exchequer,"
from which it appears that he • received ;^34o for the two,
with a further ^40 for "carrying and erecting them" at
Winchester.

In the north-west comer stands the Minstrels' Gallery
or Tribune, the work of Edingdon. It is supported by two
flattened arches springing from the pier shafts, and is panelled

IROX GRILL-WORK FROM S. SWITHUN'S SHRINK.
>m Mr Slariii Gardi<ii--'s " Iron-wari," Vol. I.,by ftrmissitn a/ Ibt

C L t

THE INTERIOR 43

on its face and spandrels The panelling is decorated with
flowered cusps, and the central bosses bear the arms of
Wykeham. This gallery appears to have been intended for
use on State occasions ; now, however, it is merely used as a
room in which the episcopal registers may be stored. In height
it extends half-way up the neighbouring piers.

Near this, at the western end of the north aisle, is a door
made up of four pieces of iron GriU-work, which originally
stood at the top of the steps leading up from the south tran-
septs to the retro-choir. The place where it used to be is still
pointed out, and indeed marks are visible in the piers to which
it was secured. A paper read to the Society of Arts by Mr
J. Starkie Gardiner, describes the door as being, from its style,
"the oldest piece of grill-work in England. The design is
composed of sprays formed of two rolls of scrolls, welded to
a central stem, like a much-curled ostrich feather, with lesser
scrolls in the interstices and the major scrolls, each terminating
in an open-work trefoil, or quinquefoil. The large scrolls are
5^^ in. in diameter and rather stout, the grill possessing great
resisting powers, though it would not be hard to climb. . . .
There is, unfortunately, no means of fixing the date, since no
other grill resembles it; but, from the position indicated in
the cathedral, it may well have been made as long ago as the
eleventh or twelfth century." It was originally intended to
keep the miscellaneous crowd of pilgrims to the shrine of S.
Swithun from penetrating farther into the church by way of the
south transept. They were obliged to enter and depart by the
Norman doorway in the north transept.

It will not be necessary to record all the monuments and
the brasses which so abundantly cover the walls, but those of
the greatest interest will be alluded to. In the fifth bay of the
north aisle are two memorials of very different dates, those of
the "Two Brothers of Avington " (1662), and of the novelist,
Jane Austen, the youngest daughter of the rector of Steventon
in Hampshire. Her monumental brass is affixed to the wall
below the other, which records how the two brothers were
" both of Oxford, both of the Temple, both Officers to Queen
Elizabeth and our noble King James. Both Justices of the
Peace, both agree in arms, the one a Knight, the other a
Captain."

In the next bay, opposite the Norman Font, is an inscrip-

44 WINCHESTER CATHEDRAL

tion relating to Mrs Montagu, the founder of the "Blue
Stocking " Club. It is to this effect : — " Here lies the body
of Elizabeth Montagu, daughter of Matthew Robinson, Esq.,
of West Layton, in the County of York, who, possessing
the united advantages of beauty, wit, judgment, reputation,
and riches, and employing her talents most uniformly for
the benefit of mankind, might be justly deemed an ornament
to her sex and country. She died on the 25th August, 1800,
aged 81."

The Norman Font, which Milner called crux anti-
quartorum, is situated on the north side of the nave between the
fifth and sixth pillars from the west front. It is one of a group
of seven found in England ; of which four are in Hampshire,
at East Meon, S. Michael's (Southampton), S. Mary Bourne,
and Winchester ; two in Lincolnshire, in the cathedral and at
Thornton Curtis; and one at S. Peter's, Ipswich. Of four similar
fonts on the Continent, that at Zedelghem, near Bruges, is
most like the Winchester example, and also illustrates the
same legend. The material of which these fonts are made
is a bluish-black calcareous marble, such as is still worked at
Tournai in Hainault. The font before us is a nearly square
block of marble supported on a solid central column orna-
mented with horizontal mouldings, with four disengaged pillars
of lesser diameter, with "cable" mouldings, at each corner.
The spandrels of the top are decorated with carved symbolic
subjects, leaves and flowers on two sides, and on the other two
doves drinking from vases out of which issue crosses, typifying
baptism, it is said. It is rather curious that the artist has dis-
regarded the usual symmetry, and filled his spaces without
reference to the corresponding ones. On the north and east
faces of the font are three circular medallions with symbolic
doves and salamanders. On the south and west are scenes
from the life of S. Nicholas of Myra, as was fully demonstrated
by Milner ; the north side showing the saint dowering the three
daughters of a poor nobleman, while on the west he restores
to life a drowned person, probably the king's son in one of
the stories of his life, and rescues from death by the axe three
young men who are about to be slain either by the executioner
or by a wicked innkeeper, for there are two versions. Some
authorities would find four scenes represented on the west side ;
but on what grounds it is difficult to see. There only appear

THE INTERIOR 45

to be two figures of the saint, and the two scenes are divided
by what looks like a short vertical bar indicating a difference
of subject (see p. 117). The cult of S. Nicholas of Myra
grew rapidly in the twelfth century, being popularised by the
crusaders. In this century it is known that the carved work
at Toumai, whence it is probable that the black marble came,

was rtmarkable for its symbolism. The font has been thought
to be older, on account of its archaic figures, but, as the Dean
of Winchester pointed out in a paper read before the Archteo-
logical Association in 1893 (to which we are indebted for
much of this account), the mitre which S. Nicholas is repre-
sented as wearing was not recognised as part of a bishop's
official dress until the very end of the eleventh century ; in feet,

46 WINCHESTER CATHEDRAL

the particular form of mitre depicted appears to have been
late twelfth century. The conclusion naturally arrived at is that
the font is of Belgian origin, carved at Tournai between 1150-
1200, and its presence at Winchester may well be due either
to Henry of Blois or to Toclive.

On the north side of the steps leading up to the choir is a
brass tablet on a pillar, recording the merits of the " renowned
martialist,'' Colonel Richard Boles, who fought on the king's
side at Edgehill, and died bravely in a small action at Alton,
Southampton, in 1641, his party of sixty being surprised by
a large force of the rebels. " His gracious sovereign hearing
of his Death gave him high Commendation, in that passionate
expression, — Bring me a Moorning scarf, I have lost one of the
best Commanders in the Kingdome." Between the ninth and
tenth pillars on this side is the tomb of Bishop Morley, with
an epitaph written by himself at eighty years of age. By the
next pillar is the monument of Bishop Hoadley, with a good
medallion-portrait of him on it.

On the south side of the nave we find two remarkable tcmbs,
of which the first is the Chantry of William of Wykeham,
called by Timbs " one of the best remaining specimens of a
fourteenth century monument." It stands, where Wykeham
erected it, " in that part of the cross (formed by the
church) which corresponds to the Saviour's pierced side,"
and occupies the space between the piers which enclose the
fifth bay from the west end. The site is said to have been
previously occupied by an altar dedicated to the Blessed
Virgin, Wykeham's patroness. He left directions, moreover,
that three monks should celebrate masses thrice daily in his
chantry, receiving for this one penny a day, while the boys
who were to sing there nightly were assigned 6s. 8d. a year.
Needless to say, his wishes are not now carried out. The
stone-screen which surrounds the chantry is of beautiful and
elaborate workmanship, the effect of which has been com-
pared to lace, while above graceful shafts support a canopy,
of which the pinnacles rise to the level of the triforium
gallery. At the east end are traces of an altar and credence
table, and close by is a piscina. Above are two rows of cano-
pied niches, which, however they were originally occupied,
have for long been untenanted until quite recently. During the
early part of 1897 the pedestals have been filled with ten statue

THE INTERIOR 49

of modem workmanship."* A row of five empty niches runs
along the western wall. The vault of the chantry is richly
groined with Heme work ; it is tinted a vivid blue on the back-
ground, and the bosses on the groins are gilt. The ironwork
in this chantry is also noticeable. The tomb within has fortun-
ately suffered but little from time, and, thanks to the courage
of one of the pupils in Wykeham's foundation at Winchester,
Colonel Nathaniel Fiennes, the Parliamentarians left both this
monument and the college buildings untouched. On the tomb
itself lies the figure of Wykeham with his hands folded across
his breast, habited in Episcopal robes and mitre, his crozier on
his shoulder. Three small figures of monks praying kneel at his
feet, while his head is slightly raised up by supporting angels.
A little arcade runs all round the tomb, with a series of shields
in the spaces, containing his arms and motto " Manners Makyth
Man " and the arms of the see of Winchester. His epitaph, on
a slip of red enamelled brass in a chamfer round the edge of
the tomb, has been thus translated : —

Here, overthrown by death, lies William, surnamed Wykeham.

He was Bishop of this Church, which he repaired.

He was unbounded in hospitality, as the rich and poor alike can prove.

He was also an able politician, and a counsellor of the State.

By the colleges which he founded his piety is made known ;

The first of which is at Oxford and the second at Winchester.

You, who behold this tomb, cease not to pray

That, for such great merits, he may enjoy everlasting life.

As one proceeds along the nave toward the east, the choir is
reached by two flights of four steps each with a landing be-
tween, over which formerly there extended a rood-loft from

* " One method of commemorating the Quincentenary of Winchester
College (1893) was the insertion of statues into the niches of the Founder's
Chantry in the Cathedral. The work was done by Mr Frampton, A.R.A.,
under the direction of Mr Micklethwaite. The subjects are the Virgin
and Child, with Angels ; William of Wykeham, presenting a scholar of
Winchester ; and a Warden of New College, presenting a scholar of that
college (the artist worked with a photograph of the present Warden before
him) ; the Pastor Bonus with SS. James and John ; SS. Peter and Paul.
The altar and fittings were presented by Colonel Shaw Hellier ; the cross
being inscribed with the chronogram ; — nVnC gLorIa In eXCeLsIs
Deo et In terra paX hoMInIbVs bonae VoLVntatIs " ( The Church
Times, Aug. 20, 1897).

*

D

50 WINCHESTER CATHEDRAL

pillar to pillar, bearing on it Stigand^s great cross. To the
south of these choir steps and adjoining the intermediate land-
ing is the Chantry of Bishop Edingdon, the earliest in date
of the chapel-tombs at Winchester. The chantry is very plain
in comparison with the others in the cathedral, and apart from
the tomb there is only a slightly raised platform at the east
end, without an altar. A shaft of the large pillars runs down
the centre of the east and west interior walls. On the tomb
lies the figure of the Bishop in ponttficalibus, his stole bearing
the symbolic and much-disputed " Fylfot " cross, which has
been interpreted as a sign of submission. Edingdon's curious
Latin epitaph, given on page 107, is on a blue enamelled strip
of brass on the edge of the tomb.

Close to Edingdon's chantry is the Nave Pulpit, which
is in itself a good piece of Jacobean work, though not happily
situated in the nave of Winchester. It stood formerly in the
chapel at New College, Oxford, and' did not appear at Win-
chester until 1884, when it was presented by members of the
Mayo family. If one stands facing east in the aisle to the right
of this pulpit, one of the most picturesque views in the
cathedral lies before one, through part of the south transept
and up the southern ambulatory of the retro-choir to the
bright colours of Langton's chapel window at the end. It will
readily be noticed how out of the perpendicular are the piers
of this ambulatory as one approaches the east end of the
church. This seems to have arisen through a slight subsidence
of the ground here.

The original rood-screen exists no longer, and in its place we
have but a modern copy, by Sir Gilbert Scott, of the work in
the Decorated choir stall canopies. This oak Choir Screen,
which is all that breaks the view between west porch and
reredos, has not met with much approval, and the pallor
of its wood does not contrast agreeably with the rich
colour of the old choir stalls. This, however, cannot with
justice be made a ground for complaint against the architect,
who modelled his work as far as possible on the original.

As one enters the Choir, which is raised above the level
of the nave by the two sets of four steps, the stalls above-
mentioned will be found to reach on either side from the
eastern piers of the central tower to the first piers of the nave.
They are of carved oak and are possibly the best existing

THE INTERIOR Ji

examples of their date in England. The style is Early Decor-
ated, and Willis points out the similarity between their c

f. W. Siiimm, Fhrlo.i

THE CHOIR, LOOKING EAST.

and gables and those of Edward Croiichback's chapel in West-
minster Abbey. The details are varied and graceful, with the

52 WINCHESTER CATHEDRAL

design of each pair coupled under a pointed arch with a cinque-
foil in its head, which is again surmounted by a high crocketted
gable. The oak has turned a superb hue with age, very different
from the colour of the modern screen which is banked by the
reveals of the old bishop's throne. The misereres below are
much earlier in date than the canopies, but do not go quite
so far back as those at Exeter, which may be assigned to about
1230. The desks and stools of the upper tier show the date
1540 and bear also the initials of Henry VHI., Bishop Gardiner,
and Dean Kingsmill. The pulpit on the north side of the choir
was given by Prior Silkstede, whose name it bears, and is also
of finely carved work. Above the choir stalls on the northern
side is the organ, which was repaired this year.

Toward the east end of the choir stalls, in the centre of the
pavement, lies the much-disputed Tomb of William Rufus.
It is a plain coped tomb, constructed of Purbeck marble.
Since it was known that William was buried originally beneath
the tower, this tomb was assumed to be his, and in CromwelFs
time it was violated, when, as Milner relates, there was found
therein, " besides the dust, some pieces of cloth embroidered
with gold, a large gold ring, and a small silver chalice." The
very fact of these discoveries, however, tend to prove that the
grave was not that of Rufus. It is now frequently held that it
is that of Henry of Blois, who is known to have been buried
"with much honour before the high altar"; Rudborne records
that he was sepultus in ecdesia sua coram summo altari. Yet
others suppose that he still lies in the space before the altar.
The ring found in Cromwell's time, set with a sapphire
which denotes a bishop, may be seen in the cathedral library.
When the contents of the tomb were last examined, on August
27, 1868, the remains, though much disturbed by the previous
violation, indicated a man of about 5 feet 8 inches, and frag-
ments of red cloth with gold embroidery were to be seen. It
was also gathered that the body had been wrapped in lead, as
Henry of Blois was said to have been.

The vaulting of the presbytery, which is of timber carved to
imitate stone, is remarkable for its very fine and brilliantly
coloured bosses, forming a quite unique collection of designs.
Milner mentions as the chief among these, "the arms and
badges of the families of Lancaster and Tudor, the arms of
Castile, of Cardinal Beaufort, and even of the very sees held

THE INTERIOR 55

successively by Bishop Fox. The part of the vaulting from
the altar to the east window bears none but pious ornaments :
the several instruments of the Saviour's Passion, including S.
Peter's denial, and the betrayal in the Garden of Gethsemane,
the faces of Pilate and his wife, of the Jewish high priest, Judas
kissing Jesus, Judas' money-bag, the Veronica" — this is im-
mediately above the place of the cross on the reredos — " the
Saviour's coat, with the Cross, crown of thorns, nails, hammer,
pillar, scourges, reed, sponge, lance, sword with the ear of
Malchus lipon it, lanthorn, ladder, cock, dice, etc." Under
the tower the vaulting is of wood, dating from 1634. Before
this year the choir-lantern was visible from below, with its
striking late Norman stonework divided into two tiers. It
has been proposed to re-open the lantern, but this would
necessitate the removal of the bells from the tower, a matter
of considerable expense. It would also be a pity to take
down the vaulting with its various devices, including the
arms, etc., of Charles I., his queen, and the Prince of Wales,
a medallion of the two former, the Scotch and Irish arms, and
those of Archbishop Laud, Bishop Curie, and Dean Young.
The central emblem is that of the Trinity, with a "chrono-
gram" indicating the year 1634 thus: — sInt DoMUs hUjUs
pII reges nUtrItII regInae nUtrICes pIae. The larger
letters, picked out in red, serve as Roman figures which
added together make up the required number.

From the commencement of the choir to the high altar
are eleven steps, making nineteen in all from the level of
the nave. This elevation, of course, much enhances the
imposing efifect of the altar and reredos as seen from the
lower plane. It is due to the existence of the Norman crypt
beneath, and can be paralleled both at Canterbury and at
Rochester. The raised platform includes the presbytery
with its aisles and the retro-choir, and extends under the
central tower to the second pillar beyond. The nave and
transepts are thus on a lower level. Before the altar are
rails which date from the reign of Charles I., while the
Altar Books were presented to the cathedral by Charles II.

The great Reredos, which separates the presbytery from the
feretory and the eastern end of the church, is, to judge from
its style, late fifteenth-century work. It has been attributed
to Cardinal Beaufort, and to Bishop Fox and Prior Silkstede,

56 WINCHESTER CATHEDRAL

but no inscription or armorial details can be discovered to
confirm either of these suppositions. It is similar in character
to the altar-screens of Christchurch Priory, Hants, and S. Mary
Overy (S. Saviour's, Southwark); but, less fortunate than the
former, it was despoiled of all the statues which once filled
its niches, while it has not " the exquisite grace of detail which
marks the choir of angels at Southwark." The reredos at
S. Albans, in the same style, though not so large, was erected
between 1476 and 1484; and, as at Winchester before 1899,
shows a cross-shaped space where, according to legend, a huge
silver crucifix was placed. Now once more, as in the sixteenth
century, there is a figure on the great cross. It is curious
to note an attempt, during the rage for pseudo-classic architec-
ture in the last century, to beautify the reredos by placing sham
funeral urns in its niches. These were fortunately removed
in 1820, and in recent years they have been replaced by a
series of statues intended to reproduce as far as possible the
original effect. In the Builder for October 10, 1892, a large
reproduction was given of a very interesting drawing by the
late Mr J. W. Sedding, showing the whole screen completely
restored; but this scheme was unfortunately not used. A
large oil-painting, "The Raising of Lazarus," by Benjamin West,
purchased in 1782 by Dean Ogle, till 1899 hung immiediately
over the altar. Before 181 8 a huge wooden canopy in Jacobean
style, freely enriched with gold, covered all the central portion
of the screen. This was due to Bishop Curie.

The reredos is so large that it occupies the whole of the
space between the choir piers, and, being constructed of a
very white stone, is the prominent feature of the choir. The
work is very elaborate, the whole screen being arranged in
three tiers with canopied niches containing eighteen large
statues, while smaller figures — kings, saints, angels, etc. — occupy
the splays between. The pinnacles are pierced and crocketted,
and there is a central projecting canopy over the place of
the original crucifix. On either side of the high altar is a door
leading to the feretory at the back of the reredos, and these
have in their four spandrels interesting groups of fifteenth-
century sculpture, representing various scenes in the life of the
Virgin, the Annunciation, and the Visitation of S. Elizabeth,
still showing traces of colour. The fact that these carvings
have escaped destruction, just as the lower tier at Christ-

THE INTERIOR 57

church escaped, is only to be explained on the assumption
that Ihey were hidden behind some panelling since removed,

THE ALTAK AND REREDOS.

for of all images which provoked iconoclastic fury those repre-
senting the Virgin were the most certain to be attacked. The

58 WINCHESTER CATHEDRAL

whole is crowned by a triple frieze of leaves, Tudor roses, and
quatrefoils, at a height little short of the corbels which support
the arches of the roof.

The eighteen larger statues were, and are now, since the
restoration of the reredos, arranged in the following order.
In the uppermost tier, to the left and right of the head
of cross, were S. Peter and S. Paul, who were the patron
saints of the church. Two on either side of these were the
four Latin Doctors, SS. Augustine, Gregory, Jerome, and
Ambrose. " Below these, on the middle tier, we had two great
local bishops, S. Birinus, first occupant of the see, standing
beside the figure of the Virgin, and on the other side S.
Swithun, the benevolent bishop, patron-saint of the church :
beyond them, over the two doors, were SS. Benedict and
Giles,"* the one founder of the Order to which the Priory
belonged, the other the Hermit Saint, who always pitched his
tabernacle just outside the walls of medieval cities ; he is here
set in honour to commemorate S. Giles' Hill; and especially
S. Giles' Fair, from which the Convent reaped great benefit "
(Dean Kitchin : "Great Screen of Winchester Cathedral").
Outermost on this tier stand the statues of the two deacons,
SS. Stephen and Lawrence. In the lowest tier, on either side
of the altar, stand SS. Hedda and Ethelwolf, two of the most
famous Anglo-Saxon bishops of the see of Winchester. Next
these saints there is the doorway on either side and beyond
these doors are statues of King Edward the Confessor, and
S. Edmund the King. Between the figures of SS. Swithun and
Birinus, stand statues of the Virgin and S. John, while above
the arms of the Cross are the four Archangels, Uriel, Gabriel,
Michael, and Raphael. In all there are now fifty-six statues
on the screen, the smaller figures including famous kings,
bishops, women, and a representation of Izaak Walton.

Above the altar it is said that there was once " a table of
images of silver and gilt garnished with stones." These

* The charter of William Rufiis which gave permission for S. Giles' Fair
still exists, and may be found, with a commentary by Dean Kitchin, in the
" Winchester Cathedral Records." The Fair was granted for three days
(August 31, September I and 2) on the "eastern hill," known as S.
Giles' Hill. The object of the Fair ** was evidently," says Dean Kitchin,
" to help the Bishop in completing his great Norman Church. . . . Parts
of the proceeds of the Fair were at a later time assigned to Hyde Abbey, to
S. Swithun's Priory, and to the Hospital of S. Mary Magdalen.",

; NORIH TRANSEPT

THE INTERIOR 6i

images are conjectured to have represented Christ and his
disciples, possibly at the Last Supper; but no traces remain
of them. From 1782 till 1899 West's picture, "The Raising
of Lazarus," now in the South Transept, hung here. The place
is now more happily occupied by a representation of the
Incarnation.

The most recent feature of the screen is the great central
figure of Christ Crucified, the gift of Canon Valpy and the
work of Messrs Farmer and Brindley. The final restoration of
the screen by the filling of the space left vacant for three
centuries was commemorated by a solemn dedication service,
held at the Cathedral on March 24, 1899.

On the reredos as a whole, one authority has said that " no
description could do justice to the beauty and effect of the
whole work." But another has declared that " a huge screen
of this uncompromising squareness of outline is a flagrantly art-
less device which in previous periods (to the latter half of the
fifteenth century) would have been impossible." Milner again
describes its " exquisite workmanship " as being " as magnifi-
cent as this or any other nation can exhibit." Doctors most
certainly differ here.

It will perhaps be most convenient to deal at this point
with the Transepts, of which the western walls are almost
level with the choir-screen. Having been but little injured by
the fall of the tower in 1107, they still remain to a great extent
what they were when originally built by Walkelin. We there-
fore get the massive and rugged early Norman walls still
divided into the three nearly equal storeys which in the nave
have given place to two. Where the fall of the central tower
necessitated a partial rebuilding, the difference between the
Early and the Late masonry is very evident. That of the
transepts generally is coarse and very thick, as is the case
with all Early Norman stonework. The new masonry, on the
other hand, recalls what William of Malmesbury says of the
Later Norman masonry at Salisbury, when he speaks of " the
courses of stone so correctly laid that the joint deceives the
eye, and leads it to imagine that the whole wall is composed
of a single block." The juncture of the two works at Win-
chester can be easily traced. Of the general style of the
transepts, Willis says : " The architecture is of the plainest
description. The compartment of the triforium is very nearly

62 WINCHESTER CATHEDRAL

of the same height as that of the pier-arches, and the clerestory
is also nearly the same height. . . . Each pier-arch is formed
of two orders or courses of voussoirs, the edges of which are
left square, wholly undecorated by mouldings. This is the
case with the pier-arches of Ely transept, but in the arches of
the triforium at Ely, and in every other Norman part of that
cathedral, the edges of the voussoirs are richly moulded. In
Winchester transept, on the contrary, the arches of the triforium
and clerestory are square-edged like those of the pier below
and hence arises the peculiarly simple and massive effect of this
part of the church." Between the tower-piers and the terminal
walls of each transept there are three piers, making four com-
partments, the farther two of which from the nave and choir
open into the terminal aisles. The arches were all originally
plain, semi-circular, and square-edged, and are supported by
shafts with the cushioned capitals so characteristic of the
ruder Norman style, and the bases are simple with a chamfer
and quarter-round, very different from the ornamental Late
Norman bases, such as may be seen at S. Cross, Winchester,
for example. Where the Later Norman work has taken the
place of the original, we find stronger piers. The vault above
is groined, but there are no ribs. Nothing, however, can now
be seen of the vaulting above the level of the side-walls, since
a flat wooden ceiling, painted in " Early Tudor " style was put
up in 1818, by which, among other things, the rose-window in
the gable of the north transept was hidden, though in Britton's
view, which we give on page 59, we have the transept previous
to the timbering. Each transept has an eastern and a western
aisle, while at the extreme ends there are aisles rising to pier-
arch level, consisting of two arches, which a triple bearing-shaft
supports in the centre. A kind of gallery is formed at the
terminations of the north and south transepts, over and
beyond which may be seen the triforium and clerestory
windows. This can best be appreciated by a reference to
the illustration, Plate XV. Possibly this platform or gallery
was not originally so bare as it appears at the present day, but
there is no doubt that it was built in order that processions
might pass round on the triforium level.

It has been mentioned that when the tower was rebuilt the
columns nearest it in the transepts were strengthened. They
now, indeed, present a singularly massive outline to the eye.

THE INTERIOR 65

and contrast strongly even with the remaining Norman pillars
in the transepts. The arches also are changed. All were
once semi - circular, but the rebuilding necessitated a change
of the first and second from the actual tower -pier into the
stilted or " horse - shoe " form. They are doubly recessed
(except those supporting the end platform, which have but
one soffit), and present quite plain and unadorned square
edges.

In each transept there is at the eastern angle a spiral staircase
leading up to the roof.

If we take first the North Transept, there will be found
at the southern end, against the side wall of the choir, and
between the two great tower-piers, the Chapel of the Holy
Sepulchre, a small compartment which contains some interest-
ing and still distinct mural paintings on the roof and walls,
representing scenes of the Passion, etc. The most striking is
a large head and bust of Christ on the easternmost division of
the vaulting. One hand holds the Gospels, with the inscription
Salus Populi Ego Sum, On the wall beneath are the Descent
from the Cross and the Entombment. The Nativity and
Annunciation also appear on the roof, while on the walls are
the Entry into Jerusalem, the Raising of Lazarus, the Descent
into Hell, and the Appearance to Mary Magdalene in the
Garden.

Two of the Norman piers on the eastern side of this transept
have received very elaborate canopies of the Decorated period,
under which it is probable that there were at one time altars.
Some Early English work may be seen in the heads carved on
some of the larger shafts and the caps of the subsidiary pillars,
a noticeable figure being "a monk crouched in a caryatidal
attitude and holding a chess-board."

The modem entry to the crypts is in the south-east interior
wall of this transept, the old means of entrance, through the
" Holy Hole," having been blocked up.

The large tomb in the north transept is that of Prebendary
Iremonger. On the western wall, at the end of the transept,
are very faint traces of mural paintings, representing S. Chris-
topher carrying Christ, etc., and it is probable the transepts
were once thus decorated throughout.

The South Transept has received far more additions to its
interior decorations than has the north. In the back of the

£

66 WINCHESTER CATHEDRAL

choir-wall is recessed Sir Isaac Townsend's memorial, not a very
noteworthy object. Just under it there now stands the old oak
settle which was once used by the Norman monks. In the
central space of the transept itself is a large monument to

DOORWAY FROM THE CLOSE INTO
THE RETRO-CHOIR.

(From ■ Drawing by H. P. Clifford.

Bishop Wilberforce, showing beneath a canopy a life-sized
figure, with mitre, cope, and staff, on a slab borne by six
kneeling angels. A Latin inscription records his birth on
ist September 1805, and his death on 19th July 1873. The
monument is the work of Sir Gilbert Scott, and has met with

BISHOP WILBERFORCE'S TOMB IN SOUTH TRANSEPT.

68 WINCHESTER CATHEDRAL

some severe attacks. It certainly is out of place in its Norman
surroundings. The aisles of the south transept are divided up
into six chambers, of which the larger of the two westernmost
is used as a chapter-room, and does not betray its age by its
present appearance; the one next thie body of the church,
Milner's "ancient sacristy," but now known as Henry of
Blois' treasury, serves as a boys' vestry. The Norman work
over the door must not be overlooked. The chamber to
the extreme south is the entrance lobby to the south door,
which leads into the " slype " or passage running between the
church and the old chapter-house. Leading out of it is the
ancient "calefactory," where the fire for the censers and
thuribles was preserved. Panelled oak screens enclose this
room on both sides. Next it comes Silkstede's chapel, the
central of the three easterly divisions of the transept aisles.
The prior's rebus, in the form of a skein of silk, is evident
among the carvings, and his Christian name Thomas may be
seen on the cornice with the MA, the monogram of the Virgin,
standing out distinctly. The screen in this chapel is worthy
of remark, and is divided into four compartments, the upper
part of each being open-work and arched with pierced quatre-
foils in the spandrels. In this chapel traces of painting were
discovered in 1848, beneath the whitewash on the eastern wall,
the subject apparently being Christ upon the water, calling to
him S. Peter, who, in an attitude of hesitation, holds the prow
of the boat. Fine canopy-work surmounts the whole. Origin-
ally there were eight canopies enclosing figures, but little except
the canopies remain, the distemper-painting having almost
vanished. On the floor of the chapel may be found a black
marble slab, the tomb of Isaak Walton, with Bishop Ken's
often -quoted inscription, which, however, it is perhaps pardon-
able,, to quote again : —

" Alas ! Hee's gone before,
Gone, to returne noe more ;
Our panting hearts aspire
•-*'' After their aged Sire,

Whose well-spent life did last
Full ninety years, and past.
But now he hath begun
That which ^yiH nere be done :
^"' iGrGwii'<} wjthi: eternal Blisse,
* 7 We wfsh oil r. 'souls with his."

SOUTH AISLE, FROM TRANSKPT,

THE INTERIOR 71

Next to Prior Silkstede's chapel comes the "Venerable"
chapel, which serves as a vestry for the minor canons of the
cathedral. The screen of this fills the whole archway, the six
canopies extending beyond the sweep of the arch. Down each
side are untenanted niches, and the openings of the tracery
show some beautiful and elaborate iron-work, dating from the
Renaissance. A similar screen, though without canopies,
divides the Venerable Chapel from Silkstede's.

The Library is approached from an old wooden staircase
in the south aisle of this transept. It is a " long, low room,
with oaken presses curiously carved and ornamented with gilded
knobs, after the fashion of the latter half of the seventeenth
century." It contains three or four thousand books, most of
which are the gift of Bishop Morley, and there are many fine
MSS. ; but its chief treasure is a Vulgate of the twelfth century,
in three folio volumes on vellum. The gorgeously illuminated
manuscript is the best work extant of the Winchester school,
and the fact that it was never finished renders it only the more
interesting, since thereby the whole process from the first
outline to the final touch of colour is evident. A legend
concerning Hugh of Avalon, afterwards Bishop of Lincoln
(associated with this book), is worthy of mention. Henry II.,
who founded the Carthusian Monastery of Witham, in Somerset,
had appointed Hugh prior in 11 75 or 11 76, and finding that
his monks needed MSS. to copy, and in particular a complete
copy of the Bible, promised to give them one. To avoid expense,
he borrowed this superb Vulgate from Winchester and sent it to
Witham. A chance visit long afterwards of a Winchester monk
revealed what had happened, and on the matter becoming known
to Hugh, he returned the volume without the king's knowledge.*
Among other important MSS. in the Library are an eleventh
century copy of Bede's "Ecclesiastical History"; a twelfth
century " Life of Edward the Confessor," by S. Aelred,
Cistercian Abbot of Ri^vaulx about 11 60, containing a portrait
of the king within one of its initial letters; a copy of the
^^ Fromptorium Parvulorum'^^ \ a charter of -^thelwulf. King
of Wessex, dated 854 and bearing the signatures of the king,
his young son Alfred, and S. Swithun. There are also the
chapter-books for 155 3- 1600; the cathedral statutes, with the

* It is now, however, on record that the book was bequeathed by Bishop
Nicholas of Ely in 12S2.

72 WINCHESTER CATHEDRAL

signatures of Charles I. and Bishop Laud ; the original charter
of Henry VIIL to the cathedral, on the dissolution of the
priory; and many interesting documents and printed books,
some with the original chains which were fastened to their
covers. Here also are kept the great seal of Henry V., the
pastoral staff from Bishop Fox's tomb, Jiis ring, those of Bishops
Gardiner and Woodlock, and the one, set with a sapphire,
which comes from the tomb of "William Rufus" — probably,
as we have said, belonging to Henry of Blois. The library was
built in 1668 A.D.

We may now return to the body of the cathedral and pass
to the surroundings of the choir.

The Feretory, where the feretra or shrines of the saints
were placed, lies behind the high altar and reredos, and the
two doors in the latter give access to it. At one time, before
the erection of the reredos, the feretory must have been visible
from the choir. Behind the doors is a raised platform, seven
feet in breadth, extending right across. The upper surface
of this is now only three feet above the ground level, but
originally it must have been far higher. Four steps givip
access to it. Before it is a hollow space with stumps of pierS)
demonstrating the ancient presence of an arcade in front of the
platform. The feretory is without internal decoration, but the
exterior of the east wall is adorned with nine rich Decorated
tabernacles, with the yet legible names of saints and king who
once occupied the eighteen pedestals within them. This in-
scription is to be found here : —

Corpora sanctorum sunt hie in pace sepulta^
£x meritis quorum fulgent miracula multa.

The floor beneath the platform is supported by a small vault,
" the entrance to which (to quote Willis) is by a low arch in the
eastern face of the wall under the range of tabernacles." This
vault is that which was designated as the Sanctum Sanctorum
or Holy Hole. The feretory is used as a receptacle for the
carved work found at various dates about the cathedral, includ-
ing portions of statuary once belonging to the great screen.
Here lies a really marvellous lid of a reliquary chest, presented
in 1309 by Sir William de Lilburn, with events in the life of
our Lord and various saints vividly portrayed in colours, and

THE INTERIOR 73

decorated with the donor's armorial bearings. The " Holy
Hole " has been used as a receptacle for fragments of various
kinds since the end of the fifteenth century, before which it
was visible from the choir, for no reredos intercepted the view.
Milner states tliat in 1789 the whole passage and vault was

so choked with rubbish that the attempt to enter it had to
be abandoned. A more recent observer records that there
appears to be no space for a crypt or receptacle for relics
within the " Holy Hole," the chest of bones, etc., being placed
on the platform over the arcade. The fragments now in the

74 WINCHESTER CATHEDRAL

feretory are often very fine, but are most of them sadly
mutilated.

The north and south sides of the feretory are flanked by the
chantries of Bishops Gardiner and Fox, into which it opens.
Gardiner's Chantry, in the Renaissance style, was much
damaged by the Reformers, the head being knocked off the
figure lying in a long niche on the outside of the chantry,
and other indignities committed. Of the tomb nothing now
remains, but there is an altar with figures at the back, after
Italian models, representing, according to one tradition. Justice
and Mercy, while others say the Law and the Gospel. At the
east end is a small vestry used as a repository for fragments.
The details and the mouldings of Gardiner's chantry are of the
Renaissance style, and Britton has described the chapel as
" bad Italian and bad English." This is true of the eastern
end of the compartment, but there are redeeming features
amid the curious mixture of styles. Below the floor-level of
this chantry may be seen the base of one of the Norman apse
piers, the sole remaining feature of the Norman east end
except the crypt.

Bishop Fox's Chantry is a far finer piece of work and
is certainly the most elaborate chfintry in the cathedral. It
displays no fewer than fifty-five nchly-groined niches, all dif-
ferent in pattern; only two of them are tenanted, and these
by very recent figures, on either side of the door. There is a
great amount of wonderful undercutting to be seen in the
spandrels to the arches, and the upper part of the erection
shows open tracery with niches and canopies, under a cornice
of running foliage and Tudor flowers, surmounted by panelled
pinnacles. Fox's " pelican in her piety " alternates on the pin-
nacles with small octagonal turrets. At one time, moreover, all
the arches, etc., contained stained glass, but this has now
vanished. Within there is no tomb, but, as in Gardiner's
chantry, there is, in an arched, recess at the side, the
ghastly carved figure of a corpse so frequently introduced
in monuments of the period. The altar is surmounted by a
small reredos in a sunk panel, now unoccupied, crowned by a
band of angels bearing emblems of the Passion. Over the
altar is this inscription in Latin : —

O sacrum convivium in quo Christus sumitur.

THE INTERIOR 75

There is here, as was the case with Gardiner's chanlry, a small
room at the eastern end. In this are chests in which relics
were kept

The interior piart of the choir aisles have received " Wyke-
ham" windows, four on each side, though from the exterior
only three can be seen. The westernmost on the north side

BISHOP FOX'S CHANTRY.

has two lights partly looking into the open, while two are
unglazed and the top of one looks into the northern transept.
On the south side all are glazed, hut only three get any light
from outside. These can be seen from the close at the
junction of transept and retro-choir. All these windows have
blank panelling or arcading below. It looks as if Wykeham

76 WINCHESTER CATHEDRAL

or his successors meant to reduce the width
of the Norman transepts, so as to bring them
into better proportion with tlie eastern arm
of the church.

Between the presbytery and the side aisles,
extending from pier to pier, are screens of
pierced stonework, erected by Bishop Fox,
whose motto frequently occurs on them,
together with his initials and Cardinal
Beaufort's. On the top of the screens are
! six painted chests (see p. 95), in which are
collected the bones of saints and kings of
the Saxon period ; the original collection
being made by Henry of Blois. These
Mortuaiy Chests were desecrated by
the Cromwellian ruffians when they broke
into the cathedral, and the bones were

HiijK or yax s cHANTni. jj^^jg^j through the stained glass of the

west and other windows. Afterwards they

were collected once more and replaced in

the chests where they now lie. Among the

relics are the bones of Ed red, Edmund,

Canute, William Rufus, Emma, Bishops Wina,

Alwyn, Egbert, Cenwulf or Kenulf, Cynegils,

and Ethel wu If, and there are the old in-
scriptions to indicate whose remains were

originally enclosed within the boxes, though

there is now no warrant that the bones

within correspond at all to the names

without.

Among those who have been buried in

the presbytery aisles is Bishop de Pontissara,

of whom Rudborne says that he was buried

ex aquilonari plaga majoris altaris. Accord-
ingly we find his monument on the north

side. Close by him, and still nearer ■ the

altar, was laid Hardicanute, the last Danish '

king, who was brought hither from I^mbeth

for interment. His death was attributed to

"excessive drinking." In the southern aisle

are Richard, the Conqueror's younger son ; :^

IR. WITH BEAUFORT'S AND
FOX'S CHANTRIES.

THE INTERIOR 79

Edward, eldest bom of Alfred the Great ; and Bishop Nicholas
de Elfs heart.

Eastward of the feretory the building is known by the name
of the Retro-choir, and presents a very old and pure example
of Early English work from the hands of Bishop de Lucy. The
aisles are said to have been used as a model in the building of
Salisbury Cathedral. Similar processional aisles may be seen
also at Hereford on a minor scale. This part of the cathedral
is lower and consequently appears broader than the more
westerly portion. There is a considerable amount of wall-
space, only interrupted by the numerous imposing chantries
erected on the floor. The lower part of the walls is remark-
able for some fine, though simple, blank arcading, dating also
from De Lucy's time ; while light is given by pairs of lancet
windows, the rear arches being borne on groups of detached
shafts. Many of the original chased tiles of the pavement
remain to this day, and, in fact, there has been little interference
with De Lucy's work. Unfortunately, however, as has been
remarked, much of it has settled considerably, throwing
the south-eastern angle altogether out of the perpendicular,
one vaulting-shaft having in this manner been bent back and
cracked in half. The effects of the subsidence can easily be
seen in the photograph of the south aisle of the retro -choir
looking toward the east

As one passes beyond the feretory through the retro-choir,
the Chantry of William Waynflete stands to the north
of the central alley. The canopy is very elaborate and
beautiful, and plentiful traces of the original colour still can be
seen, especially on the groining. On each side are three flat-
headed arches, those at the east end being closed, while on
each side of the piers adjoining the west end there are narrow
open arches. Corniced and battlemented screens fill these
arches to mid-height. The figure on the tomb is a" modem
restoration, very elaborately clad in full pontificals, while the
hands are clasped about a heart, representing the sursum corda,
or lifting up of the heart. The chantry is kept in repair by
Magdalen College, Oxford, which Waynflete founded. Its
situation, like that of the companion tomb of Cardinal Beaufort,
makes it very impressive. There is no altar now. At the east
end is a blank wall surmounted by three empty canopied
niches, while at the other are two open gratings.

8o WINCHESTER CATHEDRAL

In the corresponding position to the south is the Chantry
of Cardinal Beaufort, now kept in repair by the Dukes of
Beaufort. In Britton's time, as he tells us, there had fallen a
" horse-load of the pinnacles in the canopy of Cardinal Beaufort's
chantry." Owing, however, to the extreme elaboration, the
effect is hardly impaired by this loss. The plan of the tomb
is two groups of four clustered piers at each end, supporting a
mass of canopies, niches, and pinnacles, which "bewilder the
sight and senses by their number and complexity," as Britton
quaintly. says. The screen at the west end is closed, that at the
east end open. The vault displays some elaborate fan-tracery.
The body of the cardinal is presented in his scarlet official
robes and the tasselled and corded hat, and the serenity of his
face suggests very little the traditional portrait of him, as
represented, for example, in Shakespeare's " Henry V." His
death-bed moments, it is well known, have been much mis-
represented. The inscription originally on his tomb has been
destroyed, but Godwin quotes one sentence of it thus : —
Tribularer si nescirem misericordias tuas.

Against the north wall, not far from Waynflete's chantry, is
an unknown tomb with part of an effigy, to the east of which is
the grave of one William Symonds, " Gentleman, of Winchester
twice Maior and Alderman," as his epitaph of 1616 relates.
The last four lines of the inscription run as follows : —

His Merrit doth Enherit Life and Fame,
For whilst this City stands Symonds his name
In alle men's harts shall never be forgotten,
For poores prayers rise when flesh lyes rotten.

Between the same chantry and the wall lies the tomb of Bishop
de Rupibus, while in the space between the chantries of
Beaufort and Waynflete lies the only ancient military effigy
in the cathedral, a genuine relic of the fourteenth century.
It is commonly known as William de Foix, and represents,
in a slightly mutilated form, a knight in surcoat and com-
plete ringed armour of the thirteenth century. His legs are
crossed* and the feet rest on a crouching lion, while the head
is supported on two cushions which were formerly held up by
angels. The right hand grasps the sword hilt, and the pointed

* ** Such figures as lie crosslegged are those who were in the wars of the
Holy Land, or vowed to go and were prevented " (Sir William Dugdale).

CARDINAL BEAUFORT'S CHANTRY.

THE INTERIOR 83

shield, one of the earliest examples of a quartered shield, bears
" quarterly, in the first and fourth, the arms of Beam, two cows
passant, gorged with collars and bells ; in the second and third,
three garbs ; over all a cross." Gn the front edge of the slab
Mr F. J. Baigent discovered the name Petrus Gavston or
Gauston twice encised, but to this "scribbling" Mr Weston
S. Walford, who has a note on this tomb in the fifteenth
volume of the Archeological Journal^ does not attach much
importance, for it may merely record the engraver's conjecture
as to the person here buried. The body of Edward II.'s
favourite. Piers, was moved from Oxford to King's Langley
in Hertfordshire two years after his execution, and buried
there on January 2, 13 14, in the presence of the king. It
is not known to have been moved since. It seems probable
that the effigy here is that of the father of the Piers known
to us, a Sir Arnold de Gavaston, a record of whose inter-
ment at Winchester in May 1302 we possess, with the
additional fact that Edward I. sent money and two pieces
of cloth of gold to the funeral. Such respect would natur-
ally be paid to the father of Edward II. 's foster-brother.
Mr Walford suggests that the garbs on the shield are a
canting allusion to the name Gabaston or Gavaston, for the
spelling varies very much — Gaveston, Gaverston, and Gaber-
ston being also found. The date of the tomb Mr Walford
places between the death of Arnold in 1302 and the murder of
his son in 131 2. The tomb itself is adorned with five Decorated
arches with the Gavaston arms on the shield, together with those
of England, of France, and of Castile and Leon.

West of this are the tombs of Bishop Sumner and Prior Silk-
stede. The latter's grave, according to Woodward, was found,
when opened, to contain the complete remains of a body robed
in black serge, with the " funeral boots " yet on the bones of the
feet. The body seems to have been removed hither from Silk-
stede's chapel in the south transept.

Next the western end of Beaufort's chantry is the tomb of
William de Basynge, prior of this church {quondam Prior istius
ecdesici)^ as his inscription states, promising 145 days' indul-
gence to whoever prays for his soul three years. He died
in 1295.

On the south wall facing the same chantry is a marble monu-
ment of the Royalist, Sir John Clobery ; and near this is a large

84 WINCHESTER CATHEDRAL

slab in the floor, in memory of Baptist Levinz, Bishop of Sodor
and Man, and prebendary of Winchester, who died in 1692.

On the end wall of the ambulatory, to the left of the entrance
to the Chapel of the Guardian Angels, is a fine monument,
somewhat mutilated, to Ethelmar or Aymer de Valence, half-
brother of Henry HI., who was so unpopular a bishop at
Winchester. Only his heart is in the cathedral, having been
conveyed hither from Paris, where his body was buried. The
facts are commemorated by the following inscription on the
presbytery wall : —

Corpus Ethelmari

Cuius Cor Nunc Tenet

Istud Saxum Parisiis

Morte Datur Tumulo

Obiit A.D. 1 26 1.

When Winchester was attacked by the so-called religious zeal
of the Puritans, Ethelmar's heart was disturbed, as is recorded
by a writer of the period, who says that " when the steps of
the altar were levelling with the rest of the ground one of the
workmen accidentally struck his mattock on this stone and
broke it ; underneath which was an urn wherein the heart of
this Ethelmar was, being enclosed in a golden cup, which
thing . . . being conveyed to the ears of the committee-
men they took the cup for their own use, and ordered him
to bury the heart in the north isle, which he accordingly did."
The heart, he goes on to say, was "so entire and uncorrupt"
that it was " as fresh as if it had just been taken from the body,
and issued forth fresh drops of blood upon his hand. This I
had from the mouth of the workman himself, whom I believe."
The slab which once covered the heart shows, within the sym-
bolic vesica, " in a trefoil canopy the half-length figure of the
Bishop, mitred and in his episcopal robes, his uplifted hands
holding a heart, his pastoral staff represented as resting on his
left arm." Below are his arms and the inscription in Lom-
bardic letters, + Ethelmarus, Tibi Cor Meum Dne,

The Lady Chapel, due in part to De Lucy and in part
to Priors Hunton and Silkstede, is of rectangular shape, the
easternmost portions being added about 1524. It should be
noticed that in De Lucy's work the central aisle is but little
higher than the laterals, which still have their eastern walls,

THE INTERIOR

whereas the actual material of the
Lady Chapel east wall was erected by
Hunton, The north and south walls
exhibit De Lucy's Early English arcades
and lancets, while they become Per-
pendicular at the eastern end, and the
east window is of the same period.
This large seven -light window shows
"transom and tracery of a peculiar
kind of subordination, or rather inter-
penetration of patterns, well worth a
careful study " (Willis). The stone
work of the interior is quite plain, but
a large portion of the wall space is
concealed by some richly-carved wooden
panelling added by Bishop Fox, Seats,
desks, and screen are abo of fine work-
manship. Where the walls are not
hidden by wood-work are the very faint
remains of some curious old mural
paintings of the miracles of the Virgin,
executed under the direction of Prior
Silkstede in 1489. These frescoes are
decidedly archaic, but they are extremely
interesting. Starting from the south
side the nineteen pictures represent ; —

I, Miracle of an image of the Virgin
bending its finger to prevent a young
man taking off a ring which he had
placed on the image that it might not
be lost or injured while he played at
ball. By this the young man was won
to monastic life.

a. Protection and honour conferred
by the Virgin on an ignorant priest,
who knew and could sing only one
mass, which was in honour of her.

3, Prior Silkstede kneeling before
Virgin, saying : " Benedtcla, iu in
mulieribus." Beneath is the follow-
ing: — "Prior Silkstede also caused

88 WINCHESTER CATHEDRAL

these polished stones, O Mary, to be ornamented at his
expense."

4. Jewish boy, after receiving the Eucharist, thrown into a
furnace by his father, but delivered from the flames by the Virgin.

5. Famous portrait of the Virgin, carried in procession by
Pope Gregory to allay a fearful pestilence. During the pro-
cession the destroying angel is seen sheathing his sword.

6. A widow receives back her son who had been kidnapped,
and thereupon restores the silver image of the child Jesus,
which she had taken from the image of the Virgin on losing
her son.

7. Virgin assisting woman taken ill on pilgrimage.

8. Virgin enables boys, with ease, to raise that which strong
men could not.

9. Nun brought to life to confess a sin not confessed before
death.

10. Virgin saves a monk from drowning, and from two evil
spirits, with instruments of torture, one who had lived an
immoral life.

11. Two Braban^ons seized by devils and killed for throwing
stones at an image of the Virgin.

1 2. Deliverance at sea effected by the Virgin.

13. Mass of the Virgin celebrated by Christ himself, with saints
and angels, on an occasion when the priest was unable to do so,

14. S. John's (of Damascus) arm restored; thereby estab-
lishing his innocence of having corresponded with unbelievers.

15. Virgin delivering from the gallows a thief who had al-
ways venerated her.

16. Virgin commanding the burial of a clerk of irreligious
life in consecrated ground, because he had been her votary.

17. Virgin assisting a painter to paint the devil "as ugly as
he knew him to be," in spite of all the devil could do to prevent
him from completing it.

18. The Annunciation — over door, which formerly led to a
particular sacristy.

19. How, by praying to the Virgin, a robber-knight was de-
livered from the clutches of the devil.

The altar is flanked on the north by a memorial of Bishop
Brownlow North, representing him kneeling in adoration. The
vault above, though not so elaborate as that of Langton's chapel
on the right hand, is a fine example of lierne work, and the shafts

THE INTERIOR 89

are noticeable for their capitals and bases. Among the devices
are T and the syllable HUN, followed by the figure of a tun ;

and T and the syllable SILK, followed by the figure of a horse ;
signifying Thomas Hunton and Thomas Silkstede respectively.

WINCHESTER CATHEDRAL

The southern window of the Lady
Chapel has recently been filled with a
memorial window to the late Bishop
Thorold, whose tomb lies in the cathe-
dral precincts just below the new win-
dow. In pre-Reformation times this
window, like those on the north and
east, was glazed with fine painted glass,
of which a few fragments still remain
in the tracery. The remaining portions
of the old work have been worked in
with the new by Mr C. E. Kempe, the
designer and executor. The memorial
glass presents scenes in the life of
Christ, while above appear S. Binnus,
Pope Honorius, S. Swithun, S. Alphege,
and other saints. The dedication cere-
mony took place on August 7, 1897,
two years af^er the burial of Bishop
Thorold at Winchester.

Of the two chapels which flank the
Lady Chapel, that to the north is the
Chapel of the Guardian An^^els,
once the chantrj' of Bishop Adam de
Orlton, of whom no memorial here
exists, though he is buried in the
chapel. This compartment is some-
times called the Portland chapel, owing
to the fact that it contains on the south
side the tomb of Richard Weston,
Earl of Portland, who was treasurer
to Charles I. A recumbent bronze
statue by Le Sueur adorns the tomb,
while in the wall above are four taber-
nacles, three of which contain mutilated
busts, probably representing members
of his lamily. A mural monument of
Bishop Peter Mews, who is also interred
here, is marked by a crozier and mitre.
On the north side, too, there is in the
cHAvti,. ^^_^jj ^^ aumbry with a shelf, having

p^

9 • I

THE INTERIOR 93

a curious square head within a trefoil. The early vaulting of
this chapel has, between the ribs, figures of seraphim, which
are very fresh in colour.

The corresponding chapel to the south is Bishop Lang^-
ton's Chantry, though the work is partly De Lucy's, includ-
ing the walls and the early vaulting shafts. The defaced
front -screen and the oak - panelling all round are very rich
examples of late Gothic, and the stone vaulting has been
compared in point of elaboration with that in the chapel of
Henry VII. at Westminster. On the groining, at the junction
of the ribs, is carved Bishop Langton's rebus, consisting of the
musical sign for a " long " upon a tun, while his motto Laus
iibi Christe also occurs. It is supposed that the magnificent
carved vine on the upper part of the oak-panelling which runs
round the chapel originally formed the rebus of Langton's see,
the tun from which it sprang being now lost. The woodwork,
which is certainly one of the most striking things in the cathe-
dral, is unfortunately mutilated, as is also part of the heraldic
work on the entrance door. At the east end of the chapel above
the former altar there is a row of seven tabernacles, under which
is a cornice which was originally gilt>and painted. The statues
which once occupied the tabernacles are no longer extant The
central tomb here is that of Bishop Langton himself. Queen
Mary's chair now stands in this chapel ; it is in a wonderful
state of preservation for its age, and the woodwork is still sound.

The entrance to the Crypts is in the north transept, as was
noted above. They are three in number, the main division
stretching from the eastern tower-piers to the first piers of the
retro-choir. It consists of a central room divided by a row of
five columns in the middle, with an apsidal eastern termination,
and is flanked by two aisles with square eastern ends. The
well here is said to be considerably older than the building
above it. From this opens out a narrower crypt, which also has
five columns down the centre, while its apse reaches to the
eastern end of the retro-choir. These crypts cannot, as some
have supposed (and the tradition still survives), form part of
the old Saxon church, since it has been fairly established that
the site of this was not that of the present building. The plan
of the chambers is in perfect accord, as Willis says, with that
of Norman churches in general. The main crypt shows by its
circular apse what was the form of the east end in the old

94 WINCHESTER CATHEDRAL

Norman church. The actual work is strikingly like that of
the transepts, the peculiar thin square abacus, combined with
a round capital, being a noteworthy point in both these por-
tions of the building. The third crypt, which is narrow like
the second, is rectangular* in shape, and its vaulting rests
on columns. It is Early English in architecture, and is
contemporary with De Lucy's work in the upper part of the
church. In 1886 the crypts were to a great extent cleared
out to their original level, a vast quantity of rubbish being
removed. Many fragments of early work still remain, though
in too mutilated a form to indicate where they originally stood.
The stained g'lass at Winchester can, perhaps, best be
treated separately from the windows which it occupies. Most
of the information may be found summed up in a paper
addressed to the Archaeological Association in September 1845,
by Mr C. Winston. Two circles of Early Decorated glass are
to be seen in the west window, but they are merely composed
of coloured pieces arranged in geometrical patterns. The
general arrangement of the great window is, as has been
already said, kaleidoscopic, the fragments which compose it
being too scattered to admit of being put together again in
their original form. The effect, however, is striking, par-
ticularly at some distance from the west end. There are
remains of the original glass in the west windows of the
aisles and in the first window from the west in the south aisle,
but the Edingdon windows in the north aisle have lost their
glass. The glass in the above windows consists of the heads
of canopies, though in the west window some of the original
figures are still to be seen. This is the earliest Perpen-
dicular glass in the cathedral, and may date from Edingdon's
time. Next in date is the glass in the other windows of the
nave aisles and clerestory windows, a little later than that in
the west window, and of the same character as that at New
College, Oxford, in the north, south, and west windows. Of
this glass, apparently four figures and part of their canopies
have been removed to the first window from the east in the
choir clerestory. The heads of the three westerly windows,
to the north of the choir clerestory, showing canopy-work and
cherubim, come next in date, with eight canopied figures in
the upper tier of the two easterly windows on the south of this
clerestory. The latter seem to have come originally from some

THE INTERIOR 95

other window, being too short for their present situation. Their
date may be about the end of the reign of Henry VI. The east
window of the choir may be a little earlier than 1525, and has
introduced in it Bishop Fox's arms and motto, Est deo gracia.
This window has been much disturbed, the top central light being
filled with glass of Wykeham's period, while little of Fox's glass
seems to be in its original position. To Fox also may be attri-
buted part of the aisle windows north and south of the choir,
and some canopies in the side windows of the choir clerestory.
Some late glass, much mutilated, may be seen in the east window
of the Lady ChapeL Warner says of the two large windows,
that " the great east window is remarkable for the beauty of its
painted glass, which contains the portraits of saints, and of some
bishops of this see ; it is whole and entire, the west window is
magnificent, but much inferior to this."

t hy Reginald Hlomfield in his " Histoiy of Ren.

CHAPTER IV

HISTORY OF THE SEE

The West Saxon kingdom, of which S. Birinus became the
first bishop, included the counties of Surrey, Berkshire, Sussex,
Hampshire, Dorset, Devon, and Somerset. When Birinus was
consecrated by the Bishop of Milan, he was not assigned any
exact territorial jurisdiction, as was only natural, seeing that he
was a missionary to a little-known land. He met, however,
with a rapid success, and in 635 performed the baptism of
Cynegils, king of the West Saxons, on the day of his marriage
to the daughter of the Northumbrian king. The town of Dor-
chester on the borders of Mercia was immediately assigned to
Birinus as a bishop's seat. But when Aegelberht had succeeded
him, the next king, Cenwalh, made a division of the king-
dom into two distinct dioceses of Dorchester and Winchester,
the new creation being assigned in 661 to Wina; who, how-
ever, succeeded to the whole of the original diocese, as Aegel-
berht appears to have left England in disgust. Eleutherius,
Wina's successor, continued to hold the still united offices at
Dorchester, and it was not until Hedda became bishop, about
679 A.D., that Winchester was really made the seat of a diocese.
Even Hedda continued to rule all from Winchester, and not
before his death was a permanent division of sees carried out.
Winchester retained Surrey, Sussex, and the Southampton
district ; while the other counties were assigned to Sherborne
— Dorchester, which belonged more properly to Mercia, having
been taken away, as there was no longer the same need of an
inland centre to the see, with four bishops now in Mercia.
Sussex was also taken from the Winchester diocese during
the episcopacy of Daniel, Hedda's successor, and by way of
compensation he was only able to add the Isle of Wight,
hitherto unattached to any see. When the West Saxon king-
dom became, in the ninth century, practically the kingdom

96

HISTORY OF THE SEE 97

of England, Winchester, of course, assumed a very important
position. S. Swithun, who was chosen as bishop in 852, had
great influence with King Ethelwulf, and his cathedral corre-
spondingly became an object of veneration. The see suffered,
however, from the Danish raids which occurred during the next
two reigns ; but with Bishop Athelwold its prestige was quite
restored. To him is due the establishment of a Benedictine
monastery at Winchester, the previous convent having been
one of secular (and non-celibate) canons. With the supremacy
of the Danes, we find Cnut both elected king and subsequently
buried at Winchester. Edward the Confessor, moreover, was
crowned in the cathedral on Easter Day, 1043, so that Win-
chester maintained its position well up to this date. Further
invasions of the Northmen then very much wasted the south
coast, and gradually Winchester began to yield its pride of
place to Westminster.

However, the town remained a place of considerable im-
portance, for, as Mr H. Hall says in his " Antiquities of the
Exchequer," "although Westminster possessed an irresist-
ible attraction to a pious sovereign through the vicinity of a
favoured church, Norman kings, engrossed in the pleasure of
the chase and constantly embroiled in Continental wars, found
the ancient capital of Winchester better adapted for the pursuit
of sport, as well as for the maintenance of their foreign com-
munications through the proximity of the great mediaeval
seaport, Southampton." This traffic between London arid the
two Hampshire towns passed through Southwark, which always
had a close connection with Winchester, remaining even to this
day in a modified degree. The Norman bishops, if they
found Winchester no longer the chief town of England, cer-
tainly added to the glory of the church by the erection and
beautifpng of a new cathedral. Immediately after the death
of Walkelin, the first bishop of the conquering race, there was
a vacancy in the see which lasted for nine years, owing to the
vexed question of investiture. When Giffard was finally installed,
he displayed considerable activity. Among his other works, he
built the town residence of the bishops of Winchester at South-
wark. Bishop's Waltham remained the principal residence until
its destruction by Waller in 1644, after which Famham Castle
took its place.

Rumour says that there was a suggestion made of raising the

G

9S WINCHESTER CATHEDRAL

see of Winchester to the rank of an archbishopric during its
tenure by that foremost of fighting churchmen, Henry de Blois,
who certainly desired the elevation. At any rate, Fuller says of
Henry that he "outshined Theobald, Archbishop of Canter-
bury." The Pope's consent, however, was not secured. Henry
paid considerable attention to the temporal affairs of his see,
rebuilding the castles at Farnham and Wolvesey, and founding
the Hospital of St Cross. He translated also the bodies of
the old kings and bishops from the site of the Saxon crypt, the
remains without inscriptions being placed in leaden sarcophagi,
mixed in hopeless confusion. 'After Henry's death there occurred
another vacancy in the see, ended at last by the admittance of
Toclive in 1 1 74 a.d.

With De Lucy's accession in 1 189 we reach another epoch
of building activity, for not only was this bishop busy himself,
but also under his guidance there was instituted in 1202, as
the Winchester annalist records, a confraternity, to last for
five years, for repairing the cathedral. De Lucy's work at
the eastern end of the building is described elsewhere. We
should not omit to notice, when considering the position of
Winchester, that Richard, on his return from captivity in 11 94,
was re-crowned here on the octave of Easter Day.

Bishop de Rupibus, De Lucy's successor, introduced preach-
ing friars into England, and set up at Winchester in 1225 a
Dominican establishment, while a few years later the Fran-
ciscans were also established here. Both institutions have
since vanished

The middle of the thirteenth century was marked at Win-
chester by continual struggles between king, monks, and Pope,
as to the right of electing the bishop of Winchester. Some
record of these struggles will be found in the list of bishops
of the see. The contest about the election of De Raleigh lasted
five years, and the king only finally accepted the monks' choice
after the Pope and the king of France had also lent their in-
fluence on his behalf. In 1264-7 ^^^ town rose up against
the prior and convent, burning and murdering under pretext .
of assisting the king, the bishop being a partisan of De
Montfort. After the battle of Evesham the cathedral was
laid under an interdict by the Papal legate, Ottoboni, and
this was not removed until August 1267.

With Wykeham's importance in the story of Winchester

HISTORY OF THE SEE 99

we have dealt elsewhere. His successor, Beaufort, greatly
enlarged the foundation of St Cross; adding to it his " Alms-
house of Noble Poverty." It is a remarkable fact that these
two bishops and Waynflete, the founder of Magdalen College,
Oxford, between them occupied the see for no less than 120
years. The history of this period, as far as the cathedral is
concerned, is mainly architectural and therefore uneventful
in comparison with that of the earlier times. The intervals
whose history is less stirring, however, fortunately leave far
better marks on the actual buildings than do the more
eventful epochs ; and the fact that Cardinal Wolsey once
was Bishop of Winchester could not be gathered from the
cathedral itself. Indeed, he never visited the town at all
during the course of his episcopate — a circumstance which
is, perhaps, hardly to be regretted.

In 1500 Pope Alexander issued a Bull separating the
Channel Islands from their former see of Coutances, which
was now no longer English territory, and attaching them to the
see of Salisbury. " This was afterwards altered to Winchester,"
says Canon Benham, " but from some cause which does
not appear, the transfer was never made until 1568, after the
Reformed Liturgy has been established in the islands." The
cathedral itself received architectural additions during this
period from Bishops Courtenay and Langton, their priors, and
Bishop Fox. When in Henry VIII/s reign the former town
of Southwark had either been conveyed to the city or had
become the king's property (the latter being such parts as
had previously been the holding of Canterbury), the " Clink,"
or the Bishop of Winchester's Liberty, was not interfered with.
The result of this was that the Clink became the home of
the early play-houses — the Globe, Hope, Rose, and Swan —
since within the city bounds actors were not allowed to carry
on their profession. In Mr T. Fairman Ordish's " Early
London Theatres" the extent to which the first theatres
flourished in the Winchester Liberty may be clearly seen

The early Reformation period at Winchester led to a great
impoverishment of the se6 : so much so that the second William
of Wickham (1594-5) ventured, in a sermon preached before
the queen, to say that, should the see continue to suffer such
rapine as it had already undergone in her reign, there would
soon be no means to keep the roof on the cathedral building.

loo WINCHESTER CATHEDRAL

We do not know that this remonstrance produced much
effect, for the cathedral and its revenues underwent many
losses after this. The ravages of the Parliamentarians, how-
ever, which were the most serious, have been alluded to
elsewhere.

It appears from "the old Valor printed 1685," which was
quoted by Browne Willis in his " Survey of the Cathedrals " of
1 742, that some dioceses about Calais used once to belong to
Winchester. We learn also from Browne Willis that in his time
the see of Winchester contained " the whole County of South-
ampton, with the Isle of Wight, and one parish in Wiltshire,
viz. Wiltesbury : It has also all Surrey, except 1 1 churches
in Croyden Deanry which are peculiars of the See of
Canterbury. Here are two Archdeacons, viz. i. Winchester,
valued at 61/. 15s. 2d. for First-Fruits, which has all the
Deanries in the County of Southampton and the Isle of Wight.
2. Surrey, which has all the Deanries in the County of Surrey,
the corps of which is the Rectory of Farnham ; and it is rated
for First-Fruits at 91/. 3s. 6d."

The subsequent history of the see is mainly bound up with
political and theological questions which need not be touched
on here. It may, however, be mentioned that the Ecclesiastical
Commission of 1836-7 re-adjusted the boundaries of the
diocese; while in 1846 there were transferred to London the
following districts : — Battersea, Bermondsey, Camberwell,
Clapham, Graveney, Lambeth, Merton, Rotherhithe, South-
wark, Streatham, Tooting, and Wandsworth. This re-arrange-
ment still left Winchester the largest rural diocese in England.

* . • •

V ^ • *

CHAPTER V

THE BISHOPS OF WINCHESTER

Winchester boasts a very long list of bishops as compared
with many of our English cathedrals, but the details about a
great number of them are most scanty. The exact year from
which the history of the diocese should be dated is not certain,
but it is to be placed somewhere during the reign of Ine over the
West Saxons. Under Bishop Eleutherius, to whom Hedda suc-
ceeded, the kingdom of Wessex was still but a single diocese.
The removal of the see from Dorchester to Winchester was
rendered necessary by the extension of the Mercian rule, which
made the former town unsuitable for a West Saxon see. The
date of the change, simultaneous with the moving of the bones
of S. Birinus, is fixed by Rudbome at 683, but, according to
recent authorities, it would appear to be earlier.

Hedda (? 679-705) was, at any rate, the first bishop of
Winchester, properly speaking ; though he was the fourth suc-
cessor to S. Birinus. As his most recent biographer says,
Hedda " was a man of much personal holiness and was zealous
in the discharge of his episcopal duties. . . . He is reckoned a
saint, his day being 30 July. Many miracles were worked at
his tomb." He figures on the reredos as restored in accordance
with the original design.

Daniel (705-744) had the misfortune to see his diocese
considerably Idocked in order to form the see of Sherbourne.
He resigned, by reason of loss of eyesight, in 744. According to
some accounts, Ethelwulf, afterwards king of Wessex, and father
of Alfred, succeeded him ; but this story certainly lacks proof,
though Ethelwulf seems to have been educated at Winchester.

Hunferth or Humfredus (744-754), like most of the
immediately succeeding bishops, has his place of interment at
Winchester recorded by John of Exeter.

Cyneheard became Bishop of Winchester in 754. His

JOI

to2 WINCHESTER CATHEDRAL

successors during the next century were Aethelheard,

Ecbald {circ, 790) ; Dudda (793) ; Cyneberht {circ. 799) ;
Almund or Ealhmund (circ, 803); Wigthegen {circ. 824);
Hereferth (? 829-833); Edmund (833); and Helmstan.

Of none of these do we know much, and their dates cannot be
assigned with any certainty.

With S. Swithun (852-862), who was first prior and
afterwards bishop, we come upon one of the names especially
connected with the history of the church. It is, however, to be
feared that it is not so much because of his fame in church-
building and his acts of humanity that he will be remembered
as for the popular superstition which asserts that the weather for
forty days after his feast-day on July 15 is dry or rainy accord-
ing to its state on that day. The legend is said to be based on
the fact that the removal of his body from "a vile and un-
worthy place where his grave might be trampled upon by every
passenger and received the droppings from the eaves " to the
golden shrine in the cathedral was delayed by a long con-
tinuance of wet weather. Similar legends to explain a wet
summer are found elsewhere in Europe. "The saint was
translated," says Rudbome, "in the iioth year of his rest.
And for his glory, so great was the concourse of people and so
numerous and frequent the miracles that the like was never
witnessed in England." A figure representing S. Swithun seems
once to have stood in a niche at the apex of the gable of the
west front.

He was succeeded by Alhferth or Ealhfrith (863-871),
translated to Canterbury; Tunbriht or Dunbert, whose
name was Latinised as Tunbertus (871-879); Denewulf
(879-909), whom a singularly incredible legend asserts to
have been the swineherd in whose cottage Alfred allowed his

hostess's cakes to burn; Frithstan (909-931); Bymstan
(931-934); Aelfheah or Elphege (934-951); Aelfsige
(951-958), who was nominated to Canterbury, but died in
the snow while crossing the Alps on his way to Rome for
his pall — the only fact which is really known about him;
and Brithelm (958-963).

Next came "the holy Athelwold, a great builder of
churches and of various other works, both when^ he was abbot
and after when he became bishop of Winchester " ( Wolstan).
He seems to have moved the bodies of Swithuq and other

THE BISHOPS OF WINCHESTER' 103

saints to a more suitable resting-place than they had hitherto
enjoyed. Of Athelwold's building operations at Winchester
Wolstan's account is quoted on page 6. He held the see of
Winchester for twenty-one years (963-984), and he was by birth
a native of the town. It was said of him that he was " terrible
as a lion" to the rebellious, but "gentler than a dove" to
the meek.

Hlphege or Aelfheah (984-1005), his successor, to whom
Wolstan's account of Athelwold is addressed, was martyred in
1 01 2 by the Danes while Archbishop of Canterbury, where his
tomb subsequently received great honours. Aelfheah's great
work was spent in the conversion of the " Northmen," or Danish
invaders of England.

Cenwulf or Kenulf (i 005-1 006) is allowed three years by
Rudborne, but apparently wrongly; another Athelwold or
Ethelwold (i 006-101 5), and Aelfsige (loi 5-1032) are not of
great importance.

Aelfwine or Alwyn (103 2- 103 7), called by Anglo-Saxon
chroniclers "the king's priest," seems to have been a monk
of S. Swithun's monastery and also chaplain to Cnut before he
was elevated to Winchester. The legend which makes him the
lover of Emma, widow of Aethelred and Cnut, and mother of
Edward the Confessor, has been declared unhistorical ; but, at
any rate, the story of her ordeal, when she walked blindfold and
barefoot over nine red-hot plough-shares, .was once celebrated.
It is a curious coincidence that the bones of queen and
bishop were deposited by Bishop Fox in the same chest, Aelf-
wine's remains being exhumed from his grave to the south of
the high altar to be placed in a leaden sarcophagus above the
crypt-door.

Stig'and (104 7- 1 069) was chiefly remarkable, it appears, for
his avarice, especially shown in his retention of Winchester after
his election to Canterbury. He received the pall in 1058 from
the "anti-Pope" Benedict X., so that he was never regarded as
the rightful possessor of the dignities he enjoyed, the Normans
refusing to recognise him except as bishop of Winchester.
His wealth attracted the attention of William the Conqueror,
and by a Council held at Winchester after Easter 1070, Stigand
was deposed. Some reports state that he was cast into prison,
where he died of voluntary starvation ; and that on his body
was found a key of a casket containing the clue to great hidden

I04 WINCHESTER CATHEDRAL

treasures, which the king appropriated, giving from them, says
Rudborne, a great silver cross with two images ; but the cross
is generally called Stigand's.. He was buried in a leaden
sarcophagus to the south of the high altar.

Walkelin (i 070-1 098) was related by blood to the Con-
queror, and was brother of Simeon, prior of Winchester and
afterwards abbot of Ely. He was the first of the Norman
bishops, and signalised his incumbency by rebuilding the
cathedral from its very foundations, as the Norman ecclesi-
astics frequently did. He figures more largely in the
architectural history of the cathedral than in its historical
records, and his work has been described elsewhere. Walke-
lin was buried in the nave before the rood-loft, where stood
the great silver cross.

William Giffard (1100-1129) succeeded after an inter-
regnum such as occurred in many sees during the reign of
William Rufus. He founded S. Mary Overy, now S. Saviour's,
Southwark, as well as the bishop's residence in the same district.
Before his death he became a monk.

Henry de Blois (1129-1171) was grandson of the Con-
queror and younger brother of Stephen, afterwards King of
England. Although an ecclesiastic from his youth, he was by
no means a man of peace or a mere scholar and theologian ;
Vir animosus et audax, says Giraldus. During his prelacy he
influenced greatly the secular history of his time. In the
quarrel between Matilda and Stephen, Henry at first recognised
Matilda, but subsequently, as the foremost power in the church
and a strong partisan of his brother, he lent his weight against
the Empress, and, with the aid of Roger of Salisbury and other
bishops, gained the crown for Stephen. On Whitsunday 1162
Henry de Blois consecrated Thomas k Becket as archbishop,
and it is said that when King Henry visited him just before his
death he was reproved by the bishop for his murder of Becket.
Henry de Blois was certainly a militant churchman ; but in an
age not conspicuous for such virtues, we are told, his private
life was pure, and he laboured steadfastly for the good of his
diocese. The Winchester annalist says of him, "Never was
man more chaste and prudent, more compassionate, or more
earnest in transacting ecclesiastical matters, or in beautifying
churches." His great foundation was the still existing hospital
of St Cross.

THE BISHOPS OF WINCHESTER 105

Richard Toclive (n 74-1 188) was elected by the monks
after the see had been vacant three years. He was strongly
against Becket, having even been excommunicated by him ;
yet after the archbishop was murdered and canonised he
dedicated to him several new churches at Portsmouth,
Newport, and elsewhere. He founded a small hospital at
Winchester dedicated to S. Mary Magdalene, which by the
time of Charles II. had become a ruin, and was pulled down in
1788. Its Norman doorway may be seen in the Roman
Catholic chapel in S. Peter's Street.

Godfrey de Lucy (i 189-1204) was son of Richard de Lucy,
Grand Justiciary of England, and a great benefactor to the
Priory of Lesnes in Kent, founded by his father. De Lucy's
work at Winchester is a fine specimen of Early English
architecture, and consists of what is known as the retro-choir,
where he was buried in accordance with the practice of
interring a founder amid his work. The large slab of grey
marble without inscription which marks his grave was, Willis
tells us, " by a slight confusion of tradition " pointed out by
former vergers as the tomb of King Lucius.

Peter de la Roche or de Rupibus (i 204-1 238) sprang from
a knightly family in Poitou, and was consecrated bishop of
Winton at Rome in 1205. He was a hot and unscrupulous
partisan of King John, in spite of the latter's scornful treatment
of the church, and in 12 14, when John had submitted to
Innocent III., Peter was made Grand Justiciary of England,
much against the wish of the English nobles. He became
guardian of the young Henry III., coming often into conflict
with Henry de Burgh. Peter was in many ways a type of the
Norman ecclesiastic so hated by the people, but, according to
Matthew Paris, he fought bravely in the Holy Land, whither he
led a body of Crusaders in 1226. He founded the Domus Dei
at Portsmouth, some portions of which still exist in the " Garri-
son Chapel " ; and also the monastery at Selborne, described
by Gilbert White. He died at Farnham Castle in June 1238.

William de Raleigh (i 244-1 249) came from the see of
Norwich to that of Winchester. He was elected by the monks
in 1238, but, as explained elsewhere, it was six years before he
gained possession, though confirmed in his office by the Pope.
He retired to France, then under the rule of Louis IX., until
Henry at length gave way. Raleigh, however, did not live

io6 WINCHESTER CATHEDRAL

to enjoy his honours long, dying during a stay at Tours
in 1249.

Hthelmar or Aymer de Valence (i 250-1 261), who succeeded
him, was half-brother of Henry III., being son of the Count of
La Marche, who married John's widow. As amative of Poitou,
his appointment was as unpopular as that of de Roches, and,
moreover, he is said to have been only an acolyte when Henry
forced the monks to accept him as their bishop. At first he
was only styled " bishop-elect " of Winchester, and he was not
consecrated until Ascension Day 1260. Even before his
appointment we are told that his revenues exceeded those of
the Archbishop of Canterbury, and he was permitted to retain
them. His tyranny and greed provoked the Oxford Parliament
in 1258 to expel him from the kingdom and he fled to France,
dying three years later in Paris while on his return from Rome
to England ; for he had induced the Pope to espouse his cause
and consecrate him.

John of Exeter or John Gervase (1265-1268) was
appointed by the Pope on the death of Aymer, in preference to
two rivals whose election was disputed. He is accused of
having purchased his elevation. He assisted the barons in the
Civil War, and after Simon de Montfort's failure was suspended
and cited to appear at Rome, where he died.

Nicholas of Ely (i 268-1 280) had been lord chancellor
and high treasurer before he obtained Winchester. On his
death he was buried at Waverley Abbey, but an inscription on
the wall of the south choir aisle marks where his heart was
interred in his cathedral.

John de Pontissara, Pontoise, or Sawbridge (1282-
1304), nominated by the Pope against the will of Edward I., at
length made his peace by paying a fine of 2000 marks and
giving his manor of Swainstone, Isle of Wight, to the king.
He built a college of S. Elizabeth of Hungary at Winchester.
He had been Chancellor of Oxford University, though at the
time of his election he was Professor of Civil Law at Modena.

Henry Woodlock (1305-1316), former prior of S.
Swithun's monastery, who performed the coronation of Edward

n. j John Sandale (1316-1319); Reginald Asser (1320-
1323); John Stratford (1323-1333), whose election was
opposed by the king, but who in the next reign was translated
to Canterbury — are not particularly noticeable,

THE BISHOPS OF WINCHESTER 107

Adam Orleton or de Orlton (1333-1345) was translated
hither from Worcester by the Pope against the king's wishes.
He has the most unenviable notoriety of having been the bishop
of Hereford who instigated the brutal murder of Edward II. on
September 21, 1327. He had been accused of high treason
and deprived of Hereford, but was restored thereto by the
barons. Edward III. apparently at length received him into
favour; but Orleton went blind some years before his death.
He is buried in the Chapel of the Guardian Angels.

William Edingdon (1346-1366), though chiefly notable
for his architectural work at Winchester, was treasurer of
England in 1350 and chancellor seven years later. He might,
had he wished it, have become Archbishop of Canterbury, but
preferred Winchester. He began the great remodelling of the
nave, and, dying before much of the work was done, left certain
property, as appears from his will, for carrying on the work;
though it is also said that a claim was made against his
executors with regard to the dilapidations of the see. His
general reputation was, as a biographer says, "that he loved
the king's advantage more than that of the community." He
founded a convent of " Bonhommes " at his native village of
Edingdon, in Wiltshire, where the church building, or rather
rebuilding, is due chiefly to him. He was buried in his own
chantry in the cathedral. His "monkish epitaph," as Warner
calls it, runs thus :

Ekl3nidon natus Wilhelmus hie est tumulatus
Praesul praeeratus, in Wintonia cathedratus.
Qui pertransitis, ejus memorare velitis.
Providus et mitis ausit cum mille peritis.
Pervigil Anglorum fuit adjutor populorum.
Dulcis ^enorum pater et protector eorum.
MC tribus junctum post L.X.V. sit I punctum
Octava Sanctum notat hunc Octobris inunctum.

William of Wykeham (1367-1404), whose name has
become so identified with Winchester Cathedral and College,
was probably a native of the village of Wykeham, near Litch-
field. Born in 1324, after education at Winchester and Oxford
he was in 1346 presented to the king, Edward III., at the age
of twenty-three, "with no other advantages than his skill in
architecture " and " the courtly attribute of a courtly person."
In the course of the next twenty-one years he rose rapidly, filling

io8 WINCHESTER CATHEDRAL

various offices until he became Bishop of Winchester and Lord
High Chancellor of England. His first recorded appointment is
to the clerkship of all the king's works near Windsor, and in the
same year he was surveyor of the new buildings there, including
the round tower and the eastern ward of the Castle and a
College to the west for the Order of the Garter^ occupying the
site of the ancient Domus Regis, close to the present S.
George's Chapel. On one of the towers the inscription This
made Wykeham may or may not be meant to convey a double
meaning, but it is certainly true that his architectural successes
furthered his fortunes. In 1357 he received the tonsure, and in
1360 was made Dean of S. Martin's Le Grand, Archdeacon of
Lincoln, Northampton, and Buckingham, and Provost of Wells.
In 1 36 1 he commenced Queenborough Castle on the island of
Sheppey ; this important edifice, covering over three acres of
ground, was demolished about 1650. The castles of Winchester,
Porchester, Wolvesey, Ledes, and Dover, with many others,
are believed to have been either entirely rebuilt, or at least
enlarged, by him. He was only ordained priest five years before
his elevation to Winchester. In 1394 he undertook the great
reformation of the cathedral which is dealt with in another
part of this book. New College (Sainte Mary of Wynchestre),
Oxford, opened by Wykeham on April 14, 1386, effected
almost as great a revolution in university education as his
famous college at Winchester did for the training of boys. As
Dr Ingram has pointed out, the very title of " New " College
which has clung to it shows how completely a new collegiate
system was established by its foundation, which served as a
model for future endowments. His well-known motto — chosen
when his growing dignity made it necessary for him to possess
armorial bearings — "Manners Makyth Man" has generally
been taken to mean that virtue alone is true nobility ; Lord
Campbell, however, would have us rather interpret " manners "
as the studied etiquette of courts and the polished courtesy
which Lord Chesterfield held so important a factor in success.
Willis styles it "a somewhat radical sentiment at the time."
In his own day the secular arts Wykeham practised did not
meet with universal approval, for Wiclif alludes to him when he
observes, " They wuUen not present a clerk able of God's word
and holy ensample, but a kitchen clerk, or a penny clerk, or
one wise in building castles and other worldly doings," But

THE BISHOPS OF WINCHESTER 109

despite this objection, the whole of Wykeham's biographers,
contemporary or posthumous, agree in praising him as highly
as Fuller, who says that his " benefaction to learning is not to
be paralleled by any English subject in all particulars,'' and his
great innovation, whereby elementary education was taken from
the hands of the monks and, as in his own college, established
upon an entirely different plan, would alone stamp him as one
whose foresight was far beyond his own times. He influenced
the nation in a way not easy to over-estimate, inasmuch as
he originated, or at least carried into execution, the idea of
the great public school, as Englishmen understand it, and,
by the building of Winchester College, founded the institu-
tion he had long meditated in a way worthy of his design.
Previously to the actual construction of the college, he had
maintained in temporary shelters numbers of poor students.
On the death of the Black Prince, whose fortunes he had
vigorously espoused, and the assumption of power by John
of Gaunt, Wykeham was impeached on the charge of
embezzling the royal revenues, accepting bribes, and the like ;
and the king laid hands on the temporalities of his see. But
almost the last act of Edward III. was to restore what he had
seized to the bishop, under certain conditions which show the
great wealth of the latter. Milman, in his " Latin Christianity,"
does full justice to the " splendid, munificent prelate, blameless
in character," who devoted his vast riches to the promotion of
learning, and says that, though his endeavour to maintain the
hierarchical power over humanity was bitterly opposed by
Wiclif, " the religious of England may well be proud of both."
Wykeham was eighty years of age when he died, and his body
lies in the chantry erected by his orders on the south side of
the nave.

Henry of Beaufort (1405-1447), who followed Wykeham
in the bishopric, was the second son of John of Gaunt, by
Catharine Sw)aiford, and uncle of Henry V. In 1398, at the
early age of twenty-one, he was made bishop of Lincoln, and
in 1404 was translated to Winchester. During the reign of
Henry V. he thrice filled the office of chancellor. In 141 7,
when ostensibly on pilgrimage to the Holy Land, he was
present at the Council of Constance which was then consider-
ing the affairs of the church. At this time he was offered the
cardinal's hat by Martin V. and appointed papal legate, but

no WINCHESTER CATHEDRAL

the bestowal of this dignity on him was resented by the English
monarch, who commanded him to surrender his office at
Winchester, which he declared was forfeited by his becoming
a cardinal. The dispute, however, was arranged, and "the
haughty cardinal, more like a soldier than a man of the church,"
formally received his hat at Calais in 1426. In the following
year he led a crusade against the followers of Huss in Bohemia,
where, during the retreat of the great army from Mies, he alone
at the head of a band of English crusaders endeavoured, but in
vain, to arrest the utter rout. The death of Henry V. brought
about a fierce rivalry between the two great uncles, Humphrey
Duke of Gloucester and the cardinal bishop of Winchester,
lasting until the death of the former, which only occurred six
weeks before that of Beaufort himself. During the half-
century of his rule at Winchester he rebuilt St Cross and
founded the "Almshouse of Noble Poverty." Shakespeare
has made Beaufort a prominent figure in Parts I. and II. of
" Henry VI.," but, for dramatic reasons, perhaps, he is painted
very much blacker than he deserved. That he was a militant
ecclesiastic, scheming and unscrupulous, is no doubt true ; but
he was a statesman and possessed firmness of purpose, fertility
of resource, and confidence in those whom he selected to carry
out his designs. His wealth was very great, for he was able
to lend his nephew the king ;£'2o,ooo, besides spending an
enormous amount in charities, including ;£^4oo,ooo devoted
to the inmates of London prisons.

William of Waynfleete (144 7- 1486), a student in
Wykeham's colleges at Winchester and Oxford, was first
master of Winchester College, then made provost of Eton in
1443, and in 1447 succeeded Beaufort in the bishopric of
Winchester. From 1449 to 1459, like his predecessor, he held
the chancellor's seal, and during the Wars of the Roses was a
firm adherent of Henry VI. His death took place in i486.
He founded Magdalen College, Oxford, and possibly influenced
Henry in his endowment of King's College, Cambridge, and
Eton. Waynfleete appears to have been a man of great piety
and learning, and, as Milman observes, his actions, in advanc-
ing non-monastic institutions, reveal a sagacious fore-knowledge
of the coming changes in the temporal power of the church,
and were planned to maintain its supremacy in ways better
adapted to the new spirit which soon after his death caused the

THE BISHOPS OF WINCHESTER m

downfall of the religious houses. The effigy of this bishop, in
his chantry in the retro-clioir, has been restored.

Peter Courtenay (1486-1492) was translated from Exeter
to Winchester, but at neither see has he left any mark on
the history, the architectural work of
his period being due chiefly to his
priors.

Thomas Langton (1493-1500),
translated hither from Salisbury, where
he was active against the adherents of
Wiclif, was chosen in 1500 to occupy
the see of Canterbury, but he died of
the plague before his translation, and
was buried in his chantry to the south
of the Lady Chapel. He seems to have
been enthusiastic in the cause of educa-
tion, since he is said to have himself
superintended the teaching of boys in
his town.

Richard Fox(i5oo-i5z8)was bishop
successively of Exeter, Bath and Wells,
and Durham before he was appointed
to Winchester. Great confidence was
reposed in him by Henry VII., who
chose him as godfather of the future
Henry VIII. To Fox is attributed the
introduction of Wolsey to the king. Vet
this appeal^ to have failed to win him ^
the cardinal's gratitude, for, according to
Fuller: "All thought Bishop Fox to
die too soon, only one excepted who
conceived him to live too long, Thomas „b^„.^ ^^ j„„ip s^^^l
Wolsey, who gaped for his bishopric," tnudv chapel— bishop
With Hugh Oldham, bishop of Exeter, 'o-'s work.
Fox was joint-founder of Corpus Christi "'™p! cSblT]'''

Collie, Oxford, the pelican in her piety,
which appears on the college arms, being borne by the bishop.
His fine chantry and the reconstruction of the choir aisles
bear witness to his interest in the fabric of his cathedral, and
he is otherwise noted for the assistance he gave to various
foundations.

112 WINCHESTER CATHEDRAL

Thomas Wolsey (15 29-1 530) at length gained the coveted
see, which he held in commendam with the archbishopric of
York, but only for one year.

Stephen Gardiner (1531-1555), another of the more
famous prelates who have held this see, is said to have been
the illegitimate son of Bishop Lionel Woodville of Salisbury,
brother-in-law of Edward IV. Fuller, in one of his favourite
conceits, says that Gardiner retained in his wit and quick
apprehension the sharpness of the air at his birthplace of
Bury St Edmunds. In 1529 he became archdeacon of
Norwich, and, owing to his services to Cardinal Wolsey and
Henry VIII., was appointed to Winchester. On the whole, he
managed to keep on good terms with the king ; but his famous
six articles in support of the Real Presence sent so many to
the stake that the title of "the bloody statute" has clung
to them. During the reign of Edward VI. he was kept
prisoner in the Tower, and in 1550 was deprived of his
bishopric, which was restored to him on the accession of
Mary, whom he crowned at Westminster. He performed also
the marriage service of Mary and Philip of Spain, mentioned
on page 13. "His malice," says Fuller, "was like what is
commonly said of white powder which surely discharged the
bullet yet made no report, being secret in all his acts of cruelty.
This made him often chide Bonner, calling him * ass,' though
not so much for killing poor people as for not doing it more
cunningly." Cruel and vengeful as he was, it is yet possible
that he has been rather unjustly accused of personal delight
in his victims' sufferings; but, while the persecutions under
Mary continue to be the worst chapter of English church
history, the " hammer of heretics," as he was called, will always
continue to be execrated. On his death-bed at Westminster in
1555 he is reported to have said: "I have sinned with Peter,
but I have not wept with him." It has indeed been held that
in his latter days he was half a Protestant at heart, though this
is difficult to establish. There is preserved a rather amusing
appeal of Gardiner to the Privy Council, dating from 1547.
He had intended to hold in Southwark a solemn dirge and
mass in memory of Henry VIII., and writes to complain that
the players who flourished in the neighbourhood say that they
will also have "a solemne playe to trye who shal have most
resorte, they in game, or I in earnest." During Gardiner's

THE BISHOPS OF WINCHESTER 113

imprisonment by Edward VI., John Poynet, once Cranmer's
chaplain, held his see. As the author of "On Politique
Power" (1558), where he pleads that "it is lawful to kill a
tyrant," and uses some very immoderate language, Poynet may
be remembered, but as an ecclesiastic he has left only a dis-
creditable record in his short term of office. He died in 1556
in Germany, whither he had retired on the Roman Catholic
revival.

John White (i 556-1 559), who succeeded Gardiner, was
deposed by Queen Elizabeth. He was bom at Farnham, and
educated at Winchester. Though personally he appears to
have been pious, during his tenure of the see four burnings of
religious opponents took place in the diocese.

Richard Home (i 560-1 580) was a very vigorous sup-
porter of the reformed religion, and suffered consequently
under Mary. He appears to have been very fanatical against
the use of vestments, pictures, and ornaments of all kinds. He
may have pulled down the monastic buildings at Winchester,
less from a mistaken zeal than from motives of economy ; but
his reputation in this respect is very bad.

John Watson (1580-1583), formerly a Doctor of Medicine,
only held the see for three years.

Thomas Cooper (1583- 1594) was ordained on the
accession of Elizabeth, his Protestancy hindering him from
taking holy orders under Mary. His preaching abilities rapidly
secured his promotion to the see of Lincoln in 1570, and
Winchester thirteen years later. He was buried in the choir,
but his monument has disappeared. He engaged in contro-
versies both with the " recusants " and with the Puritans.

William Wickham (1594-1595), who also came from
Lincoln to Winchester, only held the see for ten weeks.

William Day (i 595-1 596), brother-in-law of the preceding,
was provost of Eton for no less than thirty-four years, but he
died eight months after his elevation to Winchester.

Thomas Bilson (1597-1616), though called by Anthony
k Wood "as reverend and learned a prelate as Er^land ever
afforded," and the author of several theological works, has left
little behind him at Winchester.

James Montagu (16 16-16 18) may also be briefly dis-
missed. Bilson's "On the Perpetual (Government of Christ's
Church" and Montagu's Latin translation of the writings

H

114 WINCHESTER CATHEDRAL

of James I. can hardly be said to have made them famous.
Montagu's tomb is in Bath Abbey.

Lancelot Andrewes (1619-1626) is the most celebrated
of the post-Reformation bishops who have held the see. He
was made Bishop of Chichester in 1605, Bishop of Ely in
1609, and moved to Winchester ^ine years later. As a pious
and austere man, a powerful preacher (an "angel in the pulpit,"
he was called), a scholar versed in patristic literature, and a
polemical writer, he is well known. Milton's elegy suffices to
prove the great respect and admiration which he inspired in his
contemporaries, and he held a considerable influence over
James I. ; but his " Manual of Devotion " is the only volume
of all his writings that can fairly be said to have become a
classic in any sense of the word. Andrewes died at Winchester
House, Southwark, on September 11, 1626; and his tomb is at
S. Saviour's, Southwark, in the Lady Chapel, whither it was
moved on the destruction of the chapel to the east of the
building, where it was originally placed.

Richard Neile (162 7-1 631), son of a tallow-chandler,
though of good descent, became Bishop of Rochester 1608,
Lichfield and Coventry 16 10, Durham 161 7, Winchester 1627,
and Archbishop of York 1631. He was censured by the House
of Commons, together with Archbishop Laud, as "inclined
to Arminianism and favouring Popish doctrines and cere-
monies."

Walter Curie (i 632-1 650), who came next, was deprived
of his see during the Civil War. like Neile, he was a follower
of Laud. He is best remembered in the Winchester of to-day
for his cutting of the passage known as the " slype."

Brian Duppa (i 660-1662), chaplain to Charles L and
tutor to his sons, was appointed to Chichester in 1638, having
previously been dean at Oxford. In 1641 he was translated
to Salisbury, but during the Commonwealth he retired to Rich-
mond, where he lived in solitude until the Restoration, when
he obtained the see of Winchester. An allusion to him during
his first year here may be found in Pepys, who, in his diary for
October 4, 1660, says : " I and Lieut. Lambert to Westminster,
where we saw Dr Frewen translated to the Archbishoprick
of York. Here I saw the Bishops of Winchester, Bangor,
Rochester, Bath and Wells, and Salisbury, all in their habits,
in King Henry VH.'s chapel. But, Lord ! at their going out

THE BISHOPS OF WINCHESTER 115

how people did most of them look upon them as strange
creatures, and few with any kind of love or respect." Duppa
was, however, we are informed, " a man of such exemplary piety,
lively conversation, and excess of good nature, that when
Charles I. was in prison at Carisbrooke Castle he thought him-
self happy in the company of so good a man." He died in
1662 at Richmond (where an almshouse, founded by him,
bears over its gate the inscription : / will pay my vow which I
made to God in my trouble) and was buried at Westminster
Abbey in Abbot Islip's chapel, where a tablet records his
adherence to his two kings.

George Morley (166 2- 1684), a constant supporter of
Charles I., was much favoured by him until his death on the
scaflfold. From this point he lived in exile until the Restor-
ation, when he was created Bishop of Worcester in 1660, and
was chosen to be one of the revisers of the liturgy. In 1662 he
succeeded Duppa at Winchester. He restored Famham Castle,
the palace of the bishops, at a cost of ;£'8ooo ; obtained Win-
chester House, Chelsea, for the see ; and founded the " College
for Widows of the Clergy " near the close at Winchester. He
died at Farnham Castle in 1684. Bishop Morley was an ac-
quaintance of Isaak Walton the angler, whose guest he was
after Parliament had expelled him from his see. The cathedral
library owes its being to a bequest from Morley to " the dean
and chapter and their successors."

Peter Mews (1684-1706), bishop of Bath and Wells in
1672, took part personally in the Civil War, attaining the rank
of captain, and followed Charles II. to Flanders in 1648.
Even long after his ordination he retained his martial spirit,
for as bishop of Winchester he personally took part in the
battle of Sedgmoor agamst the followers of Monmouth and
received a wound. He died in 1706, and was buried in the
cathedral.

Jonathan Trelawney, Baronet (1707-1721), was one of
the famous seven bishops who underwent trial in the reign
of James II. He was before his occupancy of the see of
Winchester, bishop of Bristol and of Exeter. During his
episcopacy, the cathedral received some questionable adorn-
ments, including the "Grecian" urns in the niches of the
reredos, now fortunately removed.

Charles Trimnell (1721-1723) was a very energetic Whig

ii6 WINCHESTER CATHEDRAL

and a strong opponent of the once famous Sacheverell. He
only spent two years at Winchester, his term being cut short
by death.

Richard Willis (i 723-1 734) was bishop successively of
Gloucester, Salisbury, and Winchester, but he has left little by
which he may be remembered.

Benjamin Hoadley (i 734-1 761) was "a zealous partisan
of religious liberty," and a strenuous Low Churchman. He
occupied in turn the bishoprics of Bangor, Hereford, Salis-
bury, and Winchester. During his tenure of the first-
named see he started the famous Bangorian Controversy
by the publication of a tract and a sermon in which he
denied the existence of a visible Church of Christ in which
"any one more than another has authority either to make
new laws for Christ's subjects, or to impose a sense upon
the old ones, or to judge, censure, or punish the servants
of another master in matters relating purely to conscience
or salvation." As a result of the heated discussion of the
matter in Convocation, that body was virtually suspended
for a century and a half. Pope ridicules Hoadley for his
verbose eloquence, speaking of " Hoadley with his periods of a
mile." He was, however, a great favourite of George L, whose
private chaplain he became on that king's accession ; and it
was under royal protection that he published the works which
gave rise to the great controversy.

John Thomas (1761-1781) was tutor to George III.
He was called by his successor "a man of most amiable
character and a polite scholar " ; and it is difficult to say much
more about him.

Hon. Brownlow North (1781-1826) was half-brother of
Lord North, to whom he owed a rapid preferment. In 1771,
when he was thirty years of age, he was made bishop of
Coventry and Lichfield; in 1774, bishop of Worcester. At
Winchester he spent over ;^6ooo on Famham Castle, and
during his time ;^4o,ooo was devoted to the restoration of
the cathedral, but the result cannot be commended.

George Pretyman Tomline, Baronet (1820-1827), had
a distinguished university career and was the author of several
theological works.

Charles Sumner (182 7-1 869) came to Winchester after a
year at Llandaff. He was a vigorous supporter of the Evan-

THE BISHOPS OF WINCHESTER ii?

gelical party. During his temi of office the boundaries of his
see were re-adjusted and contracted.

Samuel Wilberforce (1869-1873), third son of the cele-
hrated abolitionist, William Wilberforce, was translated to
Winchester from Oxford, where for twenty-five years he was
bishop. His record at Winchester is neither so long nor so
imf)ortant as at Oxford, where he successfully passed through
the troubles of the Tractarian movement. His death was
occasioned by a fall when he was out riding with Lord
Granville.

Since the death of Bishop Wilberforce the see has been
occupied by three bishops whose names alone need be given
here, for their records will be fresh in the memories of all : —

Edward Harold Brown (1873-1890), who came from
Ely to Winchester ;

Antony Wilson Thorold (1890-1895), whose tomb lies
outside the cathedral, close to the new memorial south window
of the Lady Chapel ;

Randall Thomas Davidson (1895), the present occupant
of the see.

DETAILS OF THK F0NT.<!

CHAPTER VI

OTHER INSTITUTIONS CONNECTED WITH THE CATHEDRAL

It is hardly possible to conclude an account of Winchester
Cathedral without briefly alluding to several places in the
immediate neighbourhood which are more or less intimately
connected with the church and its benefactors. Only four
buildings, however, call for any detailed description — Wolvesey
Castle, the College, Hyde Abbey, and St Cross.

Wolvesey, which is said to mean Wolfs Island, is quite
close to the east end of the cathedral. It contained at one
time a regular residence of the bishops of Winchester, the
greater part of which was erected by Henry de Blois. The
remains of this castle are very ruinous, though the outer walls
and the exterior of the keep are in good condition still.
Woodward pointed out traces of a refectory with a Norman
arch and window. The building more than once underwent
attacks, the earliest being during the struggle between Stephen
and Matilda, in which Henry de Blois took a vigorous part.
Finally, in 1646, Cromwell practically destroyed it, after it had
held out against him in the Royalist cause. It served as the
residence of many well-known characters in history, and among
its bishops Cardinal Beaufort died there. Mary slept at
Wolvesey Castle in 1554, before her marriage at Winchester.
Bishop Morley commenced building a modern house close by
the old site, and subsequent bishops completed it. Only the
middle portion of this, with the Tudor chapel, now remains, the
southern end having been pulled down by Bishop Brownlow
North. The ruins of the castle can be seen from the top of
the cathedral tower.

On Wykeham's charter for the incorporation of his new
foundation, " Seinte Marie College of Wynchestre," is the date
October 20, 1382 ; but it seems that long before this date and
up to the actual completion of the College buildings, the
bishop superintended the education of the boys for whom his

iiS

OTHER INSTITUTIONS 119 -

institution was founded, housing them in temporary structures
in the meantime — possibly in S. John's parish, on S. Giles'
Hill, it has been suggested. Before Wykeham's time, and
indeed before the Conquest, it appears that the monks of
S. Swithun's institution had a school at Winchester, at which
no less celebrated a pupil than Alfred the Great was brought
up. We have already touched on the subject of Wykeham's
ideas on education, and the change which he brought about

* COLLEGE; "SCHOOL."

by his colleges at Winchester and Oxford, and it is not
necessary to go into the subject again. The College build-
ings lie beyond the southern limits of the cathedral close,
on the south side of the narrow College Street, being entered
by a gateway with an ancient statue of the Virgin in the niche
over it. This door leads into the quadrangle, about which
are ranged various parts of the college. A further arch under
the tower in this court leads to a larger quadrangle, in which
are the Chapel and the refectory or Hall, a room 63 feet by 30,

izo WINCHESTER CATHEDRAL

with a groined oak roof and a dais at one end for the
Warden and Fellows; while at the other is the audit room,
which has some fifteenth-century tapestry and an iron-bound
chest once belonging to WilUain of Wykeham. Beneath the
Hall is "Seventh
Chamber," an early
schoolroom. Be-
yond are cloisters
and more build-
ings, and then the
meadows which run
down to the Itchen.
The niclies over
the second gateway
contain figures of
the Virgin, the
Angel Gabriel, and
William of Wyke-
ham ; while the
room below them
is known as the
election chamber,
where the annual
election of scholars
took place. In
the inner quad-
rangle the carvings
over the windows
should be noticed.
"Over the hall and
kitchen entrance
are the psaltery
and bagpipe; over
kitchen window,
WINCHESTER collkob: the ouths sathwav. Excess, a head

vomiting; opposite
a Bursar as Frugality, with his iron-bound money -chest;
over the Masters' windows are the Pedagogue, the Listless
Scholar, etc," In the Chapel, which is 93 feet long by
30 wide and 57 high, the Perpendicular windows should
be noticed, and in particular, the large east window. The

OTHER INSTITUTIONS 121

glass is declared by Mr Winston to be, with the exception
of a few pieces, modem, dating from 1824, while, the
"Jesse" window is "a very good copy of the old design."
In the vault Wykeham's wooden fan -tracery remains, but
there has been much change in the fittings of the chapel.

WINCHESTER COLLEGE: CHANTRV CHAPEL.

The old screen has gone, and the reredos is a restoration;
the original stalls were removed as early as 1681. The tower
had to be rebuilt in 1863, though the old stonework of 1470
was used where possible. At the north-east end are the
sacristy and muniment room, in which the college charters,

122 WINCHESTER CATHEDRAL

etc., are kept. Among the MSS., etc., kept here are certain
Anglo-Saxon documents and charters of Privileges from Richard
II. to Charles II.; a table of Wykeham's domestic expenses;
a thirteenth century Vulgate in manuscript ; a " Briefe descrip-
tion of the Newe Founde Lande of Virginia," by Sir Walter
Raleigh ; and a pedigree of Henry VI., tracing his descent
from Adam. The chief
relic of Wykeham is a
gold ring with a large
sapphire in it. The
Cloisters are 132 feet
in length on each side,
and the stone roofing
is supported by rafters
of Irish oak. The
ground enclosed by
the Cloisters was once
used for the burial of
the Fellows. Among
the names cut in the
walls may be seen the
name of "Thos. Ken,
1646." In the square
formed by the cloisters
is the Chantry Chapel,
built in 1420, converted
into the library after
Edward VI. had for-
bidden its use as a
chapel, and now used
once more as a chapel
for the junior scholars.
iNECKiPTioN ON WESTEBN wAn. OF "scHoo^" A portrait of WykehaHi
wiwcHKst-Es C0..LK0E. (the oldest on record)

is shown in the east
window, the glass of which dates from 1470, and comes from
Warden Thurbern's chantry in the larger chapel. Behind the
hall is "School," a detached building erected in 1687 by
the Warden, Nicholas. It is now used for glee-club concerts
and like events. The western wall has on it the often-quoted
inscription : Aut Disce Aut Discede Manet Sors Tertia Cadi,

OTHER mSTiTUTIONS iij

Modern additions to the college buildings include a library
in memory of Bishop Moberly, formerly head - master ; a
gymnasium, fives courts and a racquet court, and a new in-
firmary. One of the most curious properties of the College
is the old painting (probably sixteenth century) of the "Trusty

THE TRUSTV SERVANT.
it CDibkmalic figure well survey ;

Loaded his left hand— apt Is labour s
Himself and masler he 11 pnxect from harm.

Servant," the words being ascribed to Johnson, the head-
master in 1560-1571.

The remains of Hyde Abbey lie considerably to the north
of the cathedral, outside the old North Gate of the city, where it
was erected during the bishopric of William Giffard by Henry I.

114 WINCHESTER CATHEDRAL

The buildings were occupied in mo a.d. by the monks who
were forced to leave Alfred's "New Minster," pulled down
because of its too close neighbourhood to the cathedral.
Though the foundations of the abbey still exist, little is left
of the upper part except an arched gateway with hood-mouldings
and two royal corbel-heads. This gateway is in some walls that
apparently were once part of the out-buildings of the abbey.
The body of Alfred the Great was brought hither in mo, and
muststill be here, though all traces of the tomb have now vanished

ST CROSS FROM THE SOUTH.

Utterly, The institution, which was a very wealthy one, was not
always on good terms with the cathedral authorities, of whom
it was, of course, independent A record is kept of a dispute
between Cardinal Beaufort and the Abbot of Hyde. In the
dissolution of the monasteries under Henry VIII, it was im-
possible that the riches of Hyde Abbey could escape, and in
1538 pillage and violation overtook iL The Royal. Com-
missioners wrote that they intended "to sweep away all the
rotten bones that be called relices, which we may not omit, lest

OTHER INSTITUTIONS 123

it should be thought that we came more for the treasure than
for avoiding the abominations of idolatry." Probably Thomas
Cromwell, to whom they wrote, understood how far the two
motives influenced them and the king. The monastic buildings
did not altt^ether disappear until close on the end of last
century, when the materials were devoted to other purposes.

The Hospital of St Cross, the oldest almshouse in England,
lies one mile to the south of the town on the Southampton
Road, and may be reached from Winchester across the fields

ST CROSS FROM THE QUADRANGLE.

for part of the way. Situated In the hamlet of Sparkford, it
was founded originally by Bishop Henry de Blois in 1136, on
the site of a small monastery destroyed by the Danes. The
founder's wish was to give refuge to " thirteen poor men, feeble
and so reduced in strength that they can hardly or with difficulty
support themselves with another's aid " j while a meal was daily
to be provided for another hundred poor men. The Knights
Hospitallers, in the person of their Master, Raymund, were in
1151 A.D. put in charge of the foundation. They agreed so ill,

iz6 WINCHESTER CATHEDRAL

however, with the bishops of the neighbouring cathedral that,
about 1 200, the Pope appointed a commission which trans-
ferred to the bishops the right of choosing the master. The new
arrangement did not work well, for a little more than a century
and a half afterwards the master was found to be robbing his
charge to such an extent that the scandal was intolerable.
William of Wykeham turning his attention to the matter, a
Papal Bull was procured ordering the use of the revenues
for the benefit of the poor. The next bishop. Cardinal Beau-

CHURCH OF ST CROSS: VIEW OF EAST END FROM NAVE.

fort, added to the buildings by the foundation of the "Almshouse
of Noble Poverty," for the maintenance of two priests, thirty-five
brethren, and three sisters. The master of the hospital was to
be at its head, otherwise the institutions were to be distinct; but
by the middle of the sixteenth century the hospital had practic-
ally absorbed the almshouse. At the end of the next century,
in 1696, the master and brethren of the hospital made a public
repudiation of their duties, and commenced either to destroy the
buildings or to convert them to other than their original uses ;

128 WINCHESTER CATHEDRAL

and shortly after the southern side of Beaufort's quadrangle was
pulled down. The abuses were rectified in the middle of the
present century, and now a body of trustees, under the control
of the Charity Commissioners, has the management of the
two institutions. All the endowments of the hospital are still
intact.

After one has passed through the remains of an outer court,
the entrance to the buildings is by a gatehouse known by the
name of the " Beaufort Tower." Over the groined vault of the
doorway is the founder's chamber, surmounted by an octagonal
turret. Three niches exist above the exterior or northern
window, one of which has a kneeling figure of Beaufort, while
the representation of the Holy C^oss, formerly in the centre, and
the figure of Henry de Blois have vanished. The niche on the
inner side used to be occupied by a statue of the Virgin,
which, after surviving the Civil War, fell about a hundred years
ago. At the Porter's Lodge in the gateway the time-honoured
"dole" of beer and bread is given to visitors. The square
quadrangle on which the gate opens has the brethren's rooms
on the west (the right hand as one enters), the ambulatory or
cloister on the east, the church of St Cross at the south-east
corner, and to the right of the church a view of meadows where
the buildings were pulled down in 1789. In the centre of the
grass is a sundial. Next the Beaufort Tower at the south side
is the refectory, and beyond that the master's house. The
refectory has three two-light Perpendicular windows, a high-
pitched wooden roof, and a minstrels' gallery at the west end.
It is now only used as a dining-hall on great occasions. The
master's house is thought to be the old "Hundred Mennes
Hall," but is now furnished with modern windows, The
cloister on the east side is of sixteenth-century work, paved
with large red tiles ; " the roof is red-tiled," says a recent
observer, " the long blank wall faced with rough-cast of a warm
yellowish tinge, and supported on a range of broad and low
timber arcading, which is, in its turn, supported by a dwari
wall some three feet in height." The main feature of the
cloister is a red-brick oriel window; "reared upon two brick
arches, supported JiriMyway.^y.'aH octangular pillar of the same
material, and flanfed b^ $f&aj^e& buttresses with stone quoins,
the window-opening occupies a* comparatively small space, and
is filled with stone muUions and tracery of a Tudor character ;

THE CITY CROSS, WINCHESTER.

I30 WINCHESTER CATHEDRAL

the whole design proclaimed by a stone tablet, let into the
brickwork, to be the work of Bishop Compton." Above the
cloister is the infirmary, which opens into the church so as to
allow the sick to hear the service. The church, though con-
sidered by many the finest existing example of Late and
Transitional Norman, also exhibits architecture of all periods
down to Late Decorated. Commenced by Bishop de Blois in
1 171, it was not completed until the end of the thirteenth
century. From east to west it measures 125 feet, its ordinary
breadth is 54 feet, while at the transepts it is 115. Wood-
ward thinks from the appearance of the exterior that the
body of the church was widened at some period after its first
erection. The windows are various in style. In the nave
they are Transition Norman and Early English, and in the
clerestory Decorated; in the choir aisles Late Norman.
The western doorway is Early English with dogtooth orna-
ment, while the large window above with its geometrical
tracery is "fully developed Decorated." The most striking
feature of the exterior, however, is at the south-east exterior
angle of the south transept, a fine triple arch with chevron
and billet moulding, which was probably once a doorway into a
cloister no longer existing. Within the three-bay nave one is
in the midst of Early English and Transition Norman work.
The bases and caps of the Norman pillars are very rich, and, as
has been pointed out, furnish a great contrast to such Norman
work as is seen on the transept pillars at Winchester itself. The
south walls are Very plain, and were probably connected with
De Blois' buildings originally. In the choir above the pier-
arches is a triforium of intersecting arches (to which Milner
attributed the origin of the Pointed style), and there is a second
passage beneath the clerestory windows. The floor-brass of
John de Camden (1382) lies in the choir. When the church
was restored by Butterfield the choir was painted in imitation
of the old colouring. It cannot be said that the effect is at
all pleasing. The new floor tiles bear the letters Z. O. to
commemorate the anonymous donor of the money for this
restoration. The old encaustic tiles bear the motto "Have
Mynde." In the chancel the Renaissance carving dates from
about Henry VII., while the Henry VIII. stalls have been
removed to the morning chapel in the south aisle. The
transepts are a good example of the transition to Early English

OTHER INSTITUTIONS 131

style. In the northern arm can be seen the window opening
out of the infirmary, already mentioned above.

Of other points of interest in or near Winchester it would
be out of place to speak here at any length, but among the
various objects that are worth seeing in the town itself
mention may be made
of the City Cross, erected
by the Fraternity of the
Holy Cross during the
reign of Henry VI, The
chief figures represent
William of Wykeham,
Florence de Anne,
Mayor of Winchester,
Alfred the Great, and S.
Laurence, the litter
being the only old
figure. Britton, in 1807,
said : " The present
building is called the
Butter Cross, because
the retail dealers in
that article usually
assemble round it." He
complained of the injury
done to it by "boys
and childish men." S.
Laurence was the only
figure in his day, and it
was then "generally said
to be an effigy of S. John
the Evangelist." In the
County Hall, which in- ^ p,„^^, p„,„,y,
eludes the remains of TOMBsiuNt m the cmubchvabd.

the ancient castle of

William the Conqueror's days, is "King Arthur's Round
Table." This is mentioned as being here by the chronicler
John Harding (1378-1465), so that its antiquity is urt-
doubted. Its present painted design, however, can not
be earlier than the beginning of the sixteenth century, but
since Henry VIII.'s time the same design has been adhered

132 WINCHESTER CATHEDRAL

to. The illustration which appears here comes from an old
print o( the County Hall. Milner, in his " History and Sur\-ey
of Winchester " in the last century, remarked that the Round
Table "was evidently an eating table for the knights who used
to meet here to perform feats of chivalry, which kind of
meetings, from this circumstance, was anciently called The
Round Table. These, however, were not so much as known
in England, until the reign of King Stephen, 600 years after
the reign of Arthur. 'I'here is great reason to believe that the

THE WEST GATE, WINCHESTER.

said Stephen was the real author of the present table. The
figures and characters now painted on it were certainly first
executed in the reign of Henry VIIl."

The last illustration represents the oldest of the city gates at
Winchester, parts of it being ascribed to the reign of Stephen.
The town now, of course, extends considerably beyond its
original bounds.

V3

DIMENSIONS

Total length (external)
Total length (internal)
Length of Nave (internal) .
Width of Nave

556 feet.
526 „
262 „
83 „

Width of Choir

88 „

Length of Transept ,,
Height of Vault

209 „
78 „

Total Area ....

• 53*480 sq. feet

Altar Screen . , . .

r43 ft. 9 in. high
\39 ft. 6 in. wide.

J

<i •» «

N«Ih AUIc.
Presbylny.

Ftretory.
L-idy Chapel.

5. BlocttdDoorv

6. Entrance lo CI

7. Noimati Dwn

li. The Hoiy

j6. Beaufon':

Jl. Bishop p1

THE CRYPT&